CLASS  INTERESTS: 


THEIR  K.LLVi^N>  TO  EA 


4 


CLASS  INTERESTS: 

THEIR  RELATIONS  TO  EACH  OTHER  AND 
TO  GOVERNMENT. 


A  STUDY  OF  WRONGS  AND  REMEDIES— TO 

ASCERTAIN     WHAT     THE    PEOPLE 

SHOULD  DO  FOR  THEMSELVES. 


BY  THE   AUTHOR  OF 

'CONFLICT  IN  NATURE  AND  LIFE,"  "REFORMS:  THEIR  DIFFICULTIES 
AND  POSSIBILITIES." 


NEW  YORK: 

D.    APPLETON    AND    COMPANY, 

1,  3,  AND  5  BOND  STREET. 

1886. 


COPYRIGHT,  1336, 
BT  D.  APPLETON  AND  COMPANY. 


PREFACE. 


If  I  had  written  on  these  subjects  a  dozen  years  ago,  the 
statement  would  have  been  different  from  this.  It  would  then 
have  been  made  in  the  spirit  of  those  economical  doctrines  which 
affirm  the  sufficiency  of  competition  to  enable  all  who  deserve, 
to  win.  But  economical  conditions  are  constantly  changing ; 
and  one  may  change  views  with  further  study.  The  forces  are 
daity  multiplying  which  relegate  competition  to  the  back 
ground,  and  give  the  victory  to  combination.  The  character  of 
the  struggle  is  not  what  it  once  was — mainly  a  struggle  be- 
tween individuals  ;  it  is  now  largely  a  struggle  between  the 
organized  few  and  the  unorganized  many,  in  which  the  former 
get  advantages  and  often  push  them  to  the  utmost.  I  have  no 
apology  to  make  for  sympathy  with  the  weaker  who  are 
pushed  to  the  wall  in  an  unequal  struggle,  even  if  that  sympa- 
th}r  be  suspected  of  necessary  association  with  bias.  I  have 
endeavored  to  keep  the  bias,  if  any,  in  strict  logical  subordi- 
nation. 

Some  may  think  that  my  statement,  if  it  reach  the  people, 
will  cause  them  to  feel  unnecessary  discontent.  I  know  there 
are  some  who  would  keep  employe's  in  ignorance,  just  as  slave- 
holders would  keep  their  slaves  in  ignorance,  and  for  a  similar 
reason.  Let  us  hope  there  are  not  many  such.  The  supposi- 
tion that  the  masses  of  the  people  can  be  kept  wholly  in  igno- 
rance of  abuses  from  which  they  suffer,  is  altogether  gratuitous. 


2055042 


IV  PREFACE. 

Be  sure  that  even  the  lowliest  have  access  to  various  sources 

of  knowledge  respecting  the  unfriendly  conditions  that  affect 

them.     They  are  far  more  likely  to  be  correct  here,  too,  than 

in  devising  measures  for  their  own  relief.  It  is  on  this  point  that 

I  have  been  especially  concerned  to  make  such  suggestions  as 

will  bear  the  closest  scrutiny, — those  suggestions  being  the 

.,   proper  sequel  to  the  facts  that  show  the  prevalent  disregard  of 

1    equity  in  class  relations.     It  is  not  the  diffusion  of  light,  but 

the  persistent  attempt  to  hide  it,  that  will  make  the  trouble. 

So  far  as  I  have  ventured  to  suggest  remedies,  I  have  aimed 
not  to  lose  sight  of  the  intractabilities  of  human  nature ;  and 
I  am  gratified  to  find  that  the  conclusions  to  which  I  have 
come  by  independent  study  of  the  subjects,  are  in  accord  with 
wide-spread  movements  of  thought  and  action  in  this  country 
and  in  Europe.  I  refer  in  particular  to  the  amplification  of 
governmental  functions  and  to  the  discipline  in  youth  of  work- 
people in  the  duties  they  owe  first  of  all  to  themselves. 

The  problems  under  discussion  in  this  little  volume,  I  be- 
lieve to  be  the  gravest  and  most  urgent  of  any  that  now 
demand  attention.  I  have  contributed  my  little  toward  their 
solution,  and  all  I  ask  for  it  is  candid  consideration. 

Washington,  D.  C.,  November,  1885. 


CONTENTS. 


PAGE. 

THE  ATM l 

CHAPTER  I. 

ABSOLUTE  ECONOMICS. 

1.  Equalisation  of  Profits:    Two  reasons  why  profits  do  not 

equalize 4 

2.  Cost  and  Prices:    T.  E.  Cliffe  Leslie's  view  — tax  on  raw 

produce  4 

3.  Wages  and  Prices:    Ricardo —  takes  no  account  of  fluctu- 

ating and  modifying  conditions G 

4.  Principles  of  Taxation :    D.  A.  Wells — apparent  confusion  of 

statement 7 

5.  Relative  Shares  of  Labor  and  Capital  in  Production  :  E.  Atkin- 

son—contradictions— Thorold  Rogers  and  Hallam  on 
condition  of  laborers  —  influence  of  the  new  continents 
on  labor— the  mischief  of  these  absolute  ideas  .  .  8 

6.  Ifhmiliar  with  the  Absolute :    E.  11.  G.  Clark— the  higher  law 

of  property  12 

CHAPTER  II. 

CLASS  BIAS. 

7.  Biases  in  General:    The  nature  of  bias — partisan,  local, 

aristocratic  biases  of  the  House  and  Senate       ...       14 

8.  Class  Laws  :    The  Statute  of  Laborers  and  other  devices  to 

regulate  laborers  —  taxation  in  France  under  the  old 
regime  17 

9.  Monopoly  Biases:    The  East  India  Company  —  Adam  Smith 

-  on  this  bias  —  J.  S.  Mill  on  demoralization  by  the  aristo- 
cratic bias 19 

10.  Illustrations  of  the  Bankers'  Bias:    The  United  States  bank- 

White  and  Coe's  dogma  that  bank  paper  is  not  credit 
money — self-regulation  of  bank  issues  ....  21 

11.  Tfie  Mask  of  Credit-Strengthening:    Morton's  and  Mori-ill's 

views  — nature  of  the  measure  — a  class  and  sectional 

interest           .                                       24 

12.  The  Naval  Superstition :  Absurdities  of  our  navigation  laws.  27 

13.  Belief  for  Big  Debtors: 28 


VI  CONTENTS. 

SECTION.  PAGE. 

14.  Benefit  of  Bias  for  the  Few:    Giving  away  lands  — Secretary 

Teller's  haste  —  the  House  and  Senate  on  regulating  rail- 
roads —  great  caution 29 

15.  Aristocracy  in  the  Senate:    John  Adams  and  McMaster  on 

the  Senate  —  making  rich  men  Senators     ....       32 

16.  Biases  of  Economical  Teac/ters :    Thorold  Rogers  on  the  bias 

of  economists — J.  R.  McCulloch  on  taxation— Atkinson's 

suggestions — Sumner  on  bi-metallism  —  practical  effects.  33 

17.  The  Impotent  Bias :    Wrong  notions  of  the  masses         .       .  38 

18.  Improvement  in  Biases :    Examples    .       .       .       .       .       .  38 

CHAPTER  III. 


19.  The  Evil  of  General  Indifference:    Permits  unjust  taxation     .       39 

20.  The  Diffusion  of  Taxes:    Tax  falling  on  consumption  (Wells) 

—  a  tax  on  rent  not  shifted  (Ricardo)— repercussion  of 
income  tax  — railroad  taxes  — taxing  wages  —  shifting 
requires  effort  and  time— Wells  illustrates— F.  A.  Walker 
on  diffusion  —  editor  Economist,  J.  Chamberlain,  E.  J. 
James 40 

21.  The  Chief  Maxim  of  Taxation:    Smith's  canon— Wells'  rule- 

no  method  perfect 45 

22.  The  Ease  of  Collection :    The  strong  resist  most— favoring  the 

rich  (McCulloch)— Wells  on  exemption      ....       47 

23.  Overtaxing  the  Rich:    Oppressing  the  rich  (Ford)  — the  rich 

are  the  strong  in  this  straggle 51 

24.  Equality  of  Sacrifice  for  State  Support:    Wagner's  view— sum- 

mary of  this  doctrine  —  practical  difficulties  of  this 
scheme— education  a  condition  of  the  higher  justice  .  53 

25.  Diversity  in  Taxation:    The  latest  word  —  simple  rales  for 

taxation 57 

CHAPTER  IV. 

MONEY. 

26.  Present  and  Ultimate  Results:    Reaction  of  great  wealth  on 

family  — slavery,  large  estates  —  currency  contraction  — 

not  above  taking  such  advantages 60 

27.  Influence  of  Changeable  Values  in  Money:    General  effects  of 

changeability  —  conditions  which  affect  the  value  of 
money  —  effects  of  dearer  money  —  how  appreciation 
affects  business  — effects  of  contraction  or  expansion- 
duty  of  government  to  guarantee  unifomiity  ...  62 


CONTENTS.  VII 

SECTION  PAGE. 

28.  The  Honest  Dollar:    Gold  rising  in  value  (Robertson,  West- 

grath,  Grenfell)— ostentatious  claims  of  honesty      .        .       68 

29.  An  Economical  Bull:    Prices  rising  on  a  fearful  contraction.       71 

30.  The  Chronic  Fear  of  a  Premium  on  Gold:  Predictions  against 

silver  not  fulfilled— why  gold  does  not  hide— gold  with  a 
small  premium  not  lost  as  money 72 

31.  Natural  Selection  and  Monometallism :    Two  kinds  of  natural 

selection  —  a  strong  class  interest  determines  the  present 
tack  of  "natural  selection"  in  money  75 

32.  Who  should  make  the  Paper  Money  :    Elasticity  of  bank  paper 

(Sumner,  Walker)  —  silver  certificates  —  stopping  silver 
coinage  —  cheap  fiat  money  —  the  composite  standard  — 
bi-metallism  practically  best 78 

33.  Monometallism  a  Covert  Sectional  Interest :   How  it  is  so — criti- 

cism          82 

CHAPTER  V. 
MOXOPOLY  ADVANTAGES. 

34.  Control  of  the  Soil:  The  people  losing  their  lands— monopoly 

of  large  tracts— difficulties  of  forfeiture— new  legislation 
required 83 

35.  Inherent  Monopoly:  The  necessary  limits  to  extortion  insuffi- 

cient         

36.  Personal  Discrimination:    Rebates— Standard  Oil— milkmen 

—  special  rates  the  rule  —  examples  —  Spreckels'  sugar 
monopoly 88 

37.  Local  Discrimination ;    Charging  more  for  short  than  long 

haul  — cases  — a  case  for  experts 90 

38.  Views  of  Representative  Men :    Abstracts  and  extracts  from 

congressmen,  senators,  President  Arthur,  Republican 
Convention,  C.  F.  Adams  — why  there  is  no  national 
legislation 92 

39.  Excuses  for  Inaction:    The  good  railroads  do— who  has  made 

the  sacrifice  —  helping  weak  industries  —  the  Phelps 
splurge— cheap  freights— publicity  of  abuses  useful  — the 
fear  of  doing  harm 95 

40.  Some  other  Monopolies— and  "Parasites:"  Express,  telegraph, 

and  gas  companies  — a  New  York  gas  combination— p«ar- 
asites  on  railroads,  Senator  Sherman  ....  99 

41.  Monopolies  without  State  Francliiscs :  President  Go wan's  list — 

still  others  —  combination  not  possible  in  all  industries- 
double  advantage  of  combination  — dead  rent— competi- 
tion and  free  contract  at  fault  — how  rings  manage  — 
precedents  for  State  regulation  of  monopoly  rings  .  .  101 


VIII  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  VI. 

GOVERNMENTAL  INTEKFEUENCE. 

42.  Letting  Thing*  take  their  Natural  Course:    Human  interfer- 

ence—wrong-doers and  resistance  thereto  —  all  action 
takes  place  under  resistance  —  new  elements  in  the  con- 
test —  the  two  opposing  elements  in  society  —  "  natural " 
in  different  senses «  107 

43.  Force  as  an  Element  in  Righting  Wrong:    Rise  of  our  own 

government — voluntary  organization  and  power  to  main- 
tain unity  of  action  —  business  aggression  uses  the  State 
— Spencer's  argument  for  popular  suffrage  .  .  .  ill 

44.  Only  through  Vie  State  can  the  People  redress  their  Grievances: 

Voluntary  association  no  match  for  the  State  worked  by 
unscrupulous  men— preaching  that  all  is  well  .  .  .114 

45.  Work  of  Correction  the  Government  should  do:    Three  kinds  of 

such  work 116 

46.  Evolution  in  Government:    The  organism  as  illustrating  evo- 

lution—a vision  of  1861  —  derivation  of  government  and 
removal  of  outgrown  regulations— one  kind  of  restriction 
required  while  another  has  been  removed  —  integration 
and  centralization  — not  splitting  up  the  old,  but  differ- 
entiating the  new 117 

47.  The  Tyranny  of  Voluntary  Combinations:    Misinterpretation 

of  certain  historical  movements  — signs  that  compulsion 
does  not  abate  —  rings  doing  what  Spencer  charges  gov- 
ernment with  doing  —  control  properly  a  government 
function 122 

48.  Limit*  to  Interference :    Local  self-government  and  a  sphere 

for  the  individual  to  be  maintained  .       .        .        .125 

49.  The  Modern  Change  in  the  Structure  of  Society:    Business 

combinations  —  combinations  to  get  rid  of  competition  — 
combination  must  go  on  and  submit  to  governmental  con- 
trol— illustrated  by  railroad  systems  .  .  .  .  127 

50.  h  Governmental  Control  Practicable?    Control  by  States  has 

had  some  success  —  regulating  institutions  with  State 
franchises  — control  of  voluntary  combinations  without 
charters  — tariff  laws  favor  monopoly  rings  — positive 
work  the  State  should  do— examples  ...  131 

81.  Does  Neglect  of  the  Poor  favor  Improvement  in  the  Race? 
Handicapping  superiorities  — Spencer  on  survival  of  the 
fittest  in  society  —  general  facts  regarding  prolificacy 
among  classes— Mr.  Spencer's  assumptions— he  omits  the 
chief  cause  of  burdens  on  the  worthy —  laws  of  survival 


CONTENTS. 


among  animals  different  from  such  laws  among  men  — 
the  lowly  not  to  be  neglected  but  to  be  elevated  —  selec- 
tion among  men  directly  affects  societies  and  institutions 
rather  than  individuals  — importance  of  the  lower  ele- 
ments in  society 135 

52.  Are  the  Beaten  in  Life  icorth  Caring  for?    Great  inequality 

undesirable  (Rogers)  — Spencer  insists  on  moral  likeness 
of  all  grades  in  society  —  suffering  in  one  class  affects  all 
classes 143 

53.  The  Tyranny  of  Majorities :    Personal  freedom  may  increase 

as  governmental  functions  extend  —  need  of  a  regulating 
head  in  a  complicated  system— confounding  unlike  things 
—  negative  coercion  — examples  of  legitimate  restraint- 
innovations  usually  established  by  almost  unanimous 
consent — banded  minorities  more  dangerous  than  majori- 
ties—  nations  and  States  will  not  all  deal  the  same  way 
with  the  problem  of  regulation  —  obstruction  by  the  con- 
trol selfish  interests  exercise  over  government  —  Note  to 
Sec.  51 144 

CHAPTEK  VII. 

THE  RADICAL  WRONG  AND  ITS  REMEDY. 

54.  Equity  in  the  Distribution  of  Wealth :    Successful  industry  no 

proof  of  equitable  distribution  —  improvement  in  condi- 
tion of  middle  and  lower  classes  no  proof  of  equitable 
distribution  —  recent  conditions  that  help  the  many  in 
spite  of  injustice  — better  living  not  unmixed  good  under 
present  conditions — laborer's  condition  not  improving  in 
this  country — concentration  of  wealth  in  England — lower 
and  middle  classes  not  getting  full  benefit  of  new  indus- 
trial forces 149 

55.  The  means  of  Remedying  Class  Injustice  :  Whatever  deals  with 

wrong  must  have  the  power  of  coercion  — the  two  kinds 
of  superstition  about  government  —  the  remedy  for 
wrong  must  come  ultimately  through  the  government  — 
better  people  better  government  —  proper  teaching  must 
be  the  initiative  for  the  improvement  of  constituencies — 
its  difficulties  —  class  bias  of  teachers  —  bias  better  re- 
warded than  candor— no  hope  but  in  truthful  teaching— 
honest  purpose  often  neutralized  by  vaguery  —  must 
agitate 156 

56.  Needof  Primary  Education  in  Economics:    The  many  should 

be  educated  in  the  simple  principles  of  every-day  econo- 


X  CONTENTS. 

SECTION.  PAGE 

mics  — class  fashions  — educating  youth  to  a  better  per- 
spective in  life— the  work  that  took  the  Guinard  prize- 
saving— success  of  the  scheme 160 

57.  Summary  of  M.  Laurent's  Work:  Eow  the  habit  of  saving  is 
established  —  defense  and  explanation  of  the  method- 
report  of  the  awarding  committee  —  this  method  con- 
trasted with  the  absolute  methods  of  the  reformers- 
educating  youth  into  habits  of  thrift  should  go  along 
with  the  removal  of  monopoly  abuses  ....  163 

68.  The  Initiative  in  this  Country :   Expenditure  among  American 

laborers  —  the  poor  must  learn  to  make  most  of  present 
opportunity  — the  agencies  to  look  to  for  help  — draw- 
backs in  the  present  chaos  of  economics  .  .  .  167 

69.  Minding  One's  Business  in  the  Iligher  Sense :  Discipline  needed 

as  an  individual  and  as  a  social  being  —  the  egoist — n 
higher  order  of  powers  required  to  discharge  one's  social 
duties— Note  to  Sections  57  and  58  .  ,  ,  .169 


CLASS  INTERESTS. 


THE  AIM. 

It  is  not  expected  that  an  advocate  shall  be  judicial.  It  is  ! 
his  business  to  make  the  most  of  his  case.  If  he  represents  a 
special  interest,  it  is  expected  that  he  shall  manifest  the  bias 
of  his  interest,  and  yield  fully  to  its  inspiration  in  giving  tone 
and  direction  to  his  effort.  It  is  otherwise  if  one  aims  to  do 
work  in  the  general  interests  of  society.  He  must  note  the 
biases,  and  as  far  as  possible  free  his  own  mind  from  them  ;  he 
must  locate  and  measure  them  in  the  world  about  him,  and  deal 
with  them  as  the  sternest  realities.  No  man,  perhaps,  can  wholly 
avoid  being  swayed  this  way  or  that,  to  some  extent,  by  the 
tenor  of  his  sympathies.  He  may,  for  example,  feel  too  much 
for  the  hard  fate  of  the  great  proletarian  masses,  or  he  may 
sympathize  too  much  with  those  who  forget  the  many  in  their 
devotion  to  the  interests  of  the  few.  In  applying  this  to  my- 
self as  the  author  of  "  Reforms,"  I  said,  may  be  I  have  been 
mistaken  in  the  facts ;  perhaps  there  is  another  line  of  facts 
and  considerations  which  my  bias  has  not  permitted  me  to  see. 
It  is  so  easy  to  become  the  victim  of  an  unconscious  prejudice,  I 
perhaps  I  am  such  a  victim.  At  any  rate  it  will  do  no  harm 
to  go  over  some  of  this  ground  again.  Possibly  the  rings  and 
syndicates  of  every  kind  are  actuated  by  the  best  of  motives 
and  are  working  out  their  natural  destiny  according  to  some 
inevitable  law ;  may  be  they  are  public  benefactors,  in  all  ways 
doing  precisely  what  ought  to  be  done  for  the  public  good ; 


2  CLASS  INTERESTS. 

wherefore  it  would  be  base  ingratitude  to  threaten  them  with 
governmental  supervision.  Perhaps  the  drift  of  currency- 
changes  toward  gold  monometallism  is  going  in  the  best 
possible  direction  precisely  because  it  is  the  only  way  it 
can  go,  fulfilling  destin}r  under  the  law  of  natural  selec- 
tion. Taxation  as  it  is  may  be  wise  and  fair,  and  if  the 
strong  are  able  to  avoid  what  is  apparently  their  just  share, 
even  this  may  make  amends  for  apparent  wrong,  since  b}7 
such  means  they  have  more  to  invest  for  the  benefit  of  so- 
ciety in  general.  Here  are  three  great  subjects — corporate 
and  ring  monopoly,  the  currency  question,  and  taxation.  These 
comprehended  so  large  a  field  that  I  was  sure,  I  should  have 
enough  to  do  to  look  them  over  somewhat  carefulty,  and 
condense  the  results  of  my  studies  into  a  very  small  volume — 
the  hardest  part  of  the  work,  perhaps,  being  the  condensing. 

The  following  chapters  as  the  result  of  this  study  may  be 
regarded  as  a  sequel  to  u  Reforms."  Each  series  of  statements  is 
independent  of  the  other,  however,  covering  different  ground ; 
but  as  there  is  something  in  each  to  reinforce  the  other,  they 
are  together  stronger  than  either  alone.  The  aim  of "  Re- 
forms "  was  more  particularly  to  call  attention  to  the  limita- 
tions of  almost  every  effort  for  the  improvement  of  societ}*; 
the  aim  in  the  following  chapters  is  to  show  the  great  need  of 
reform  in  certain  directions,  and  to  point  out  as  definitely  as 
the  situation  at  present  seems  to  warrant,  how  such  reform  is 
to  be  effected.  The  cases  which  especially  need  looking  into 
are  those  in  which  there  is  a  conflict  of  class  interests,  with  a 
small  but  powerful  class  on  one  side,  and  the  great  body  of  the 
people  on  the  other.  If  the  writer  is  not  greatly  mistaken  there 
are  some  conditions  of  long  standing,  which  might  be  greatly 
improved,  while  there  are  new  conditions  coming  into  existence 
with  concurrent  evils  which  must  be  dealt  with  in  the  interests 
of  equit)'.  It  is  of  the  first  importance  to  see  as  clearly  as 
possible  the  line  along  which  endeavor  should  be  made  to  ef- 
fect the  desired  results  ;  and  the  writer  hopes  that  some  of  the 
suggestions  herein  made,  will  not  be  wholly  without  use. 


CLASS  INTERESTS.  3 

In  the  course  of  this  stud}*,  he  discovered  what  named  it- 
self to  his  mind  as  absolute  economics.  Examples  of  it  may 
be  found  in  many  of  our  works  on  political  economj-.  A  few 
of  them  may  be  passed  under  brief  notice  for  their  value  in  the 
way  of  suggestion. 


NOTE.— "The  People."  I  use  the  word  "people"  both  in  the  title 
and  text.  I  take  it  to  be  a  word  of  distinctive  meaning  not  liable  to  be 
misunderstood,  and  I  would  not  refer  here  to  its  use,  but  for  a  criticism 
that  I  find  in  Prof.  Sumner's  book  on  "Social  Classes."  That  author 
maintains  that  it  is  wrong  to  speak  of  "the  people"  acting  through 
legislation  upon  a  class,  because  this  implies  that  there  is  "somebody 
who  must,  of  course,  be  differentiated  from  the  sovereign  people." 
And  he  adds:  "Whenever  'people'  is  used  in  this  sense  for  anything 
less  than  the  total  population,  man,  woman,  child,  and  baby,  and 
whenever  the  great  dogmas  which  contain  the  word  '  people '  are  con- 
strued under  the  limited  definition  of  'people'  there  is  always  fallacy" 
(p.  30).  Let  us  see  about  that:  The  "people,"  protect  themselves  by 
legal  appliances  against  classes  in  society,  known  as  horse-thieves, 
burglars,  etc.  Are  not  these  fellows  as  burglars  and  thieves  differentiat- 
ed from  the  sovereign  people  ?  The  "  people  "  have  a  right  to  protect 
themselves  against  high  tariff  taxes;  and  while  the  beneficiaries  of  such 
taxes  are  citizens,  yet  as  beneficiaries,  they  are  most  distinctly  differ- 
entiated from  the  great  body  of  the  sovereign  people,  as  Prof.  Sumner 
himself  substantially  teaches.  Yes,  the  people  have  a  right  to  protect 
themselves  against  the  conspiracies  of  corporations  and  rings  that  flank 
competition  and  build  themselves  up  at  the  expense  of  others;  and  while 
extortionists  may  be  powerful  citizens,  they  are  at  the  same  time  as 
fully  differentiated  from  the  masses  of  honest  people,  as  are  those  who 
ride  off  horses  and  break  into  houses.  Prof.  Sumner's  fallacy  consists 
in  confounding  individuals  as  citizens  with  individuals  as  manipulators 
of  monopoly  interests.  In  one  capacity  a  man  may  constitute  a  part  of 
the  sovereign  people,  and  in  another  capacity  he  may  be  an  enemy  of 
that  sovereign  people.  It  should  riot  be  necessary  to  illustrate  a  matter 
so  plain  as  this. 

2 


CHAPTER  I. 
ABSOLUTE  ECONOMICS. 

1.  EQUALIZATION  OP  PROFITS. — One  of  these  absolute  prin- 
ciples is  that  which  assumes  the  tendency  of  profits  in  all  de- 
partments of  business  to  find  the  same  level.   There  is  truth  in 
this,  but  it  must  not  be  taken  too  exclusively.     If  there  were 
constant  tendencies  along  all  lines  toward    the  same  level, 
they  would    eventually  reach    the   same    level,   and  if  they 
stopped  there,  there  would  be  no  difference  in  profits.     But 
the  fact  is  they  do  not  stop.     They  keep  on  to  rise  above  or 
sink  below.     Let  us  illustrate :  There  is  an  opening  for  some 
new  business  which  invites  capital.     The  taste,  or  even  only 
the  scent,  of  large  profits  is  almost  sure  to  breed  an  epidemic 
with  the  delusion  of  sudden  wealth  from  investment  in  that 
particular  business,  till  it  is  fairly  overdone,    and  hot  com- 
petition by  and  by  sinks  profits  below  the  general  level.   There 
is  no  intelligent  concert  of  action,  only  the  rush  of  a  blind 
impulse,  and  hence  the  utter  failure  properly  to  estimate  re- 
sults. 

There  is  another  reason  why  profits  are  never  on  the  same 
level, — the  power  of  those  engaged  in  certain  kinds  of  busi- 
ness to  limit  production  and  thereby  to  keep  up  prices.  Not 
in  all  kinds  of  business  can  this  be  done,  and  the  consequence 
is  a  great  disparity  in  profits.  A  great  deal  of  manufacturing 
is  thus  done  under  the  control  of  exclusive  rings  ;  while  farm- 
ers and  the  great  masses  of  people  are  not  able  to  combine  for 
the  monopoly  control  of  their  products. 

2.  COST  AND  PRICE. — Akin  to  this  is  the  idea  that  "the 
cost  of  production  is  the  grand  regulator  of  price — the  centre 
of  all  those  transitory  and  evanescent  oscillations  on  the  one 


SeC.  #.]  COST  AND  PRICE.  5 

side  and  the  other."  (J.  R  McCulloch).  Something  like  this  is 
to  be  found  in  most  works  on  political  economy.  So  prev- 
alent, indeed,  is  this  view  that  most  persons  who  think  in  any 
way  of  the  subject,  take  it  for  granted  that  the  cost  of  produc- 
tion or  what  is  assumed  to  be  its  equivalent,  the  amount 
of  labor  bestowed  on  production,  determines  the  market  price. 
Most,  indeed,  may  recognize  the  relation  of  supply  and  demand 
as  an  element  in  price,  but  they  are  quite  apt  to  underestimate 
it.  As  all  farmers,  at  the  present  time,  fully  realize  to  their 
sorrow,  the  cost  of  growing  wheat  has  little  to  do  with  its 
price.  The  price  is  determined  directly  by  the  relations  of 
supply  and  demand.  The  cost  of  production  is  a  remote  and 
slow-acting  element  in  the  problem ;  the  relation  of  supply  and 
demand  is  an  immediate  and  quick-acting  element,  and  the 
dealers  have  far  more  to  do  with  fixing  prices  than  the  pro- 
ducers. 

That  clear  headed  economist,  the  late  J.  E.  Cliffe  Leslie,  said 
that  this  doctrine  "  assumes  not  only  free  competition,  but  full 
information.  It  assumes  that  every  man  in  business,  or  about 
to  enter  it,  knows  the  cost  at  which  everything  is  produced, 
the  mode  of  its  production,  the  profit  or  loss  of  producing  it, 
the  improvements  impending,  and  the  manner  in  which  the 
market  will  be  affected  by  fluctuations  in  trade,  credit  and  spec- 
ulation." In  another  article  in  the  same  work  (Lalor's  Cyclo- 
pedia of  Political  Science),  the  same  writer  observes :  "  The 
best  general  formula  for  the  conditions  determining  value  is,  in 
short,  demand  and  supply.  Cost  of  production,  even  within 
the  same  country,  can  act  on  value  only  by  roughly  adjusting 
the  supply  to  the  demand,  and  its  action  is  uncertain  and 
irregular." 

An  error  akin  to  that  of  cost  of  production  governing  prices, 
is,  that  a  tax  on  raw  produce  causes  its  price  to  rise.  It  may 
sometimes  have  this  effect,  but  not  always — the  case  is  alto- 
gether, a  conditional  one.  Inasmuch  as  the  cost  of  production 
does  not  determine  prices — that  is,  when  the  cost  of  production 
is  greater,  the  price  of  the  product  is  not  necessarily  greater, 


6  ABSOLUTE  ECONOMICS.  [Chap.  I. 

since  the  price  is  governed  mainly  by  supply  and  demand  ;  it 
follows,  that  if  the  additional  cost  of  production  is  due  to  a 
tax,  the  price  does  not  necessarily  rise  in  response  to  such  ad- 
ditional cost.  The  producer  may  have  to  pay  the  tax  and  re- 
main without  the  power  to  shift  a  single  cent  of  it  to  the  con- 
sumer or  anybody  else.  There  is  danger  lurking  in  some  of 
these  absolute  propositions. 

3.  WAGES  AND  PRICES. — Ricardo  has  affected  a  precision  in 
economics  which  the  subject  hardly  admits  of.  His  statements 
read  like  a  series  of  algebraic  formulae.  Some  of  his  proposi- 
tions arc  maintained  without  regard  to  qualifying  conditions, 
much  as  if  an  astronomer  should  undertake  to  determine  the 
course  of  a  planet  without  taking  account  of  the  disturbing 
influence  of  other  planets.  In  no  field  covered  by  science  are 
the  forces  in  action  more  affected  by  relativity  than  in  that  of 
economics.  One  of  Ricardo's  absolute  propositions  is  that  a  rise 
in  wages  docs  not  add  to  the  price  of  products,  but  reduces 
profits.  In  this  he  controverts  Adam  Smith  and  others,  and 
turns  the  proposition  over  and  over  with  paternal  fondness. 
All  that  is  in  it,  is  that  it  may  be  sometimes  true.  The  case 
is  a  conditional  and  not  an  absolute  one. 

In  most  questions  of  political  economy,  the  elements  are  so 
numerous  and  changeable  as  effectually  to  rule  out  most  abso- 
lute propositions.  Ricardo  docs  not  discuss  the  converse  prop- 
osition, that  a  fall  in  wages  would  cause,  not  a  fall  in  prices, 
but  a  rise  in  profits.  He  could  not  discuss  this  proposition, 
because  one  of  his  absolute  assumptions  is  that  wages  arc  at  a 
minimum  and  cannot  fall.  He  maintains  that  taxes  on  wages 
twill  necessarily  be  paid  by  the  employer.  He  says,  morcver, 
"that  profits  depend  on  high  or  low  wages,  wages  on  the  price 
of  necessaries,  and  the  price  of  necessaries  chiefly  on  the  price 
of  food."  Now,  if  wages  could  fall,  everything  else  equal,  goods 
could  be  produced  that  much  lower,  and  the  competition  of 
producers  in  the  market  would  reduce  prices  (Ford) ;  so  that 
the  fall  of  wages  would  lead  to  a  fall  in  prices.  Then,  if  wages 
should  rise,  everything  else  equal,  the  demand  of  laborers  for 


SeC.  4-~\  PRINCIPLES  OP  TAXATION.  7 

products  would  increase,  and  this  increase  of  demand  would 
lead  to  a  rise  in  the  prices  of  products.  Here  are  conditions 
and  modifying  circumstances  which  Bicardo  has  wholly  over- 
looked. And  so  difficult  is  this  subject  that  my  own  state- 
ments are  far  simpler  than  the  case  will  warrant ;  but  it  is  im- 
possible in  so  brief  a  statement,  to  give  definite  expression  to 
all  the  dependent  and  fluctuating  elements  of  the  problem. 

4.  PRINCIPLES  OF  TAXATION. — Hon.  B.  A.  Wells  lays  down 
the  following  on  taxation  :  "  Equality  of  taxation  consists  in 
the  uniform  assessment  of  the  same  articles  or  class  of  prop- 
erty that  is  subject  to  taxation.  Taxes  under  such  a  sj-stem 
equate  and  diffuse  themselves  ;  aad-  if  levied  with  certainty 
and  uniformity  upon  tangible  property  and  fixed  signs  of 
propert}*,  they  will,  by  a  diffusion  and  repercussion,  reach  and 
burden  all  visible  property,  an$  also  all  so-called  invisible  and 
intangible  property,  with  unerring  certainty  and  equality.  All 
taxation  ultimately  and  necessarily  falls  on  consumption  ;  and 
the  burden  of  every  man,  under  any  equitable  system  of  taxa- 
tion, and  which  no  effort  will  enable  him  to  avoid,  will  be  in 
the  exact  proportion,  or  ratio,  which  his  aggregate  consumption 
maintains  to  the  aggregate  consumption  of  the  taxing  district, 
or  community  of  which  he  is  a  member."  Now,  this  is  abso- 
lute enough  to  satisfy  any  man  looking  for  perfection  in  the 
announcement  of  a  doctrine  of  taxation,  or  a  doctrine  of  any- 
thing else.  But  does  Mr.  Wells  himself  really  believe  in  it  ? 
There  is  reason  to  doubt  it ;  or  if  he  does  believe  in  it,  there  is 
apparent  mental  confusion  and  want  of  consistency.  One  of  his 
canons  of  taxation  is :  "Protection  is  the  correlative  of  taxation ; 
or,  taxes,  under  any  government  claiming  to  be  free,  are  the 
compensation  which  property  pays  the  State  for  its  protection." 
Now,  if  "all  taxation  ultimately  and  necessarily  falls  on  consump- 
tion," how  can  it  be  that  taxes  are  the  compensation  which 
property  pays  for  protection  ?  Property  and  consumption  are 
very*  different  things.  But  this  is  not  all.  According  to  an- 
other of  Mr.  Wells'  canons,  "Every*  citizen  should  pay  taxes,  not 
in  proportion  to  his  ability  to  give,  but  according  to  what  he, 


8  ABSOLUTE  ECONOMICS.  [.Chap.  I. 

ought  to  give,  and  what  he  ought  to  give  can  only  be  measured 
by  the  benefit  he  is  to  derive  ;  or,  as  Adam  Smith  expressed 
it,  in  proportion  to  the  revenue  which  he  enjoys  under  the 
protection  of  the  State."  Here  again,  the  "  enjoyment  of  rev- 
enue "  and  "  consumption  "  arc  very  different  things,  as  different 
as  the  whole  is  from  a  part,  since  there  may  be  a  great  deal  of 
enjoyment  from  revenue  which  is  not  consumed  at  all.  Then, 
if  taxes  are  necessarily  paid  in  proportion  to  consumption, 
that  settles  it,  and  these  canons  are  so  much  verbiage  without 
meaning.  It  is  not  the  intention  to  discuss  taxation  here.  No 
reasons  are  given  for  not  believing  in  Mr.  Wells'  absolute 
doctrine  of  taxation  ;  his  canons  having  been  quoted  to  show 
that  he  hardly  believes  in  it  himself. 

5.  RELATIVE  SHARES  OP  LABOR  AND  CAPITAL  IN  PRODUC- 
TION. —  Another  example  in  this  line  is  to  be  found  in  happy 
association  with  Bastiat's  economical  harmonies.  It  is  stated 
in  this  way :  "  In  proportion  to  the  increase  of  capital,  the 
absolute  share  (of  the  products)  falling  to  capital  is  augmented, 
but  the  relative  share  is  diminished,  while  the  share  of  the 
laborer  is  increased  both  absolutely  and  relativel}-."  (Bastiat.) 
This  view  is  held  by  a  number  of  economists  of  optimistic 
tastes  ;  but  we  will  take  up  the  last  expounder  —  a  very  dog- 
matic expounder  of  the  doctrine,  and  see  how  consistently  ho 
sticks  to  it  According  to  Mr.  Ed.  Atkinson,  this  result  of 
constant  gain  to  the  laborer  is  brought  about  by  means  of  im- 
proved machinery.  And  so  absolute  is  this  result  that,  with 
the  improvement  of  machinery  and  the  progress  of  civiliza- 
tion, the  laborer  must  necessarily  enjoy  a  continous  improve- 
ment of  condition.  "  Wages,  therefore,  arc  apparently  deferred 
to  profits ;  but  on  the  other  hand,  wages  constitute  all  that 
there  is  left,  and  under  the  inexorable  law  of  competition  of 
capital,  the  profits  of  capital  are  constant!}7  tending  to  a  mini- 
mum, while  the  rate  and  purchasing  power  of  wages  arc  both 
constantly  tending  to  a  maximum."  Having  got  this  absolute 
principle  fixed  in  his  mind,  Mr.  Atkinson  can  well  afford  to'be 
contemptuous  toward  "the  common  ruck  of  so-called  labor 


Sec.  5J]  LABOR  AND  CAPITAL  IN  PRODUCTION.  9 

reformers  who  infest  the  lobbies,  &c."  A  literary  attorney 
of  corporations  charging  labor  reformers  with  infesting  the 
lobbies  is  good  !  But  does  Mr.  Atkinson  really  believe  in  his 
own  doctrine  of  the  necessary  thrift  of  labor  ?  Not  a  bit  of  it. 
He  savs  :  "If  the  propositions  in  this  treatise  can  be  sustained 
— to  wit:  that  wages  are  a  constantly  increasing  remainder 
over  after  lessening  rates  of  profit  have  been  set  aside  from 
an  increasing  product,  it  follows  that  the  ability  of  a  very  pro- 
ductive country  to  find  a  market  for  its  excess,  especially  of 
farm  products,  is  a  most  important  factor  in  determining  the 
price  of  the  whole  product,  and  therefore  in  determining  the 
general  or  average  rate  of  wages  and  profits  which  can  be  re- 
covered from  the  sale  of  the  whole."  "We  must  exchange 
our  excess  for  tea,  coffee,  sugar,  hides,  wool,  and  the  like,  and 
in  the  process  of  this  exchange,  the  price  of  all  our  crops  is 
determined  by  what  this  excess  will  bring  ;  the  remainder  over 
from  the  sales  establishes  the  standard  of  farm  wages,  ~by,  or 
in,  comparison  with  which,  all  other  wages  are  in  the  main 
determined.  Hence,  the  average  rate  of  domestic  wages  rests, 
in  a  very  great  degree,  under  our  present  conditions,  on 
our  finding  a  foreign  market  for  the  excess  of  our  products 
of  agriculture ;  if  this  market  is  limited  or  reduced,  the  pur- 
chasing power  of  our  farmers,  numbering  one  half  of  our  pop- 
ulation, is  reduced,  and  this  reacts  on  the  demand  for  domestic 
manufactures." 

Now,  while  the  conditions  here  stated  are  true,  their  logical 
value  stands  in  direct  opposition  to  the  absolute  character 
of  the  main  proposition.  The  main  proposition  that  wages  go 
up  while  profits  go  down,  is  unconditional.  It  is  stated  as  a 
law  of  economical  progress  for  our  guidance  in  the  interpreta- 
tion of  economic  phenomena.  But  if  a  foreign  or  other  market, 
especially  for  farm  products,  is  necessary  to  the  integrity  of 
the  law,  then  is  it  a  law  which  holds  good  only  under  certain 
conditions.  With  no  market  at  all,  or  a  poor  one,  wages  might 
go  down,  instead  of  up,  and  with  a  good  market  they  might 
rise ;  therefore  the  proposition  that  wages  necessarily  go  up 


10  ABSOLUTE  ECONOMICS.  [.Chap.  I. 

according  to  a  law  of  things,  is  not  true.  The  absolute  air 
which  Carey,  Bastiat,  Perry,  Atkinson  give  this  proposition, 
is  delusive.  Mr.  Atkinson  explains  the  high  wages  in  America 
by  referring  them  to  "  the  possession  of  more  ample  and  va- 
ried natural  resources,"  together  with  good  machinery  and 
skill  in  its  use,  improved  methods  of  intercommunication,  gen- 
eral education,  and  light  taxation ;  and  he  affirms  that  '  'in  the 
last  analysis  the  rate  of  wages  rests  wholly  on  character  and 
capacity."  In  the  name  of  common  consistency  1  how  many 
conditions  does  he  impose  upon  his  unconditional  principle? 
While  looking  at  one  part  of  his  subject,  he  has  lost  sight  of 
the  other.  After  he  has  labored  all  through  his  essay  to  prove 
that  wages  necessarily  increase  as  profits  decrease  from  the 
competition  of  capital  and  the  efficiency  of  machinery,  he  now 
tells  us  that  wages  depend  on  ample  and  varied  natural 
resources,  on  good  roads,  good  markets,  light  taxation,  general 
education,  and  in  the  last  analysis  wholly  on  the  character  and 
capacit}*  of  the  workingman  himself.  I  repeat,  the  conditions 
here  made  arc  true,  but  the  cardinal  proposition  so  heroically 
maintained  is  not  true. 

While  the  condition  of  laboring  men  may  have  improved 
within  the  present  century  as  machinery  cheapened  products 
and  rich  new  countries  invited  immigrants,  it  docs  not  follow 
that  their  condition  will  go  on  improving  under  the  necessary 
operation  of  an}T  fundamental  law.  We  should  be  careful 
about  basing  absolute  prophecies  on  the  little  segment  of  the 
circle  we  see.  We  are  "  but  insects  oi  an  hour,"  and  it  is  pre- 
posterous for  us,  as  well  as  for  the  insect,  to  invoke  a  limited 
experience  with  narrow  interpretation  to  divine  the  laws  of  all 
time  to  come ;  and  especially  is  this  preposterous  in  the  do- 
main of  economics.  The  career  of  the  laboring  class  for  the 
last  four  hundred  j-ears  has  not  been  a  constantly  ascend- 
ing one.  Prof.  Thorold  Rogers  in  "  Six  Centuries  of  Work 
and  Wages,"  speaking  of  English  workingmcn  in  the  15th 
century,  says  :  "All  the  necessaries  of  life  in  ordinary  years, 
when  there  was  no  dearth,  were  abundant  and  cheap,  and  even 


SeC.  5.]      LABOE  AND  CAPITAL  IN  PRODUCTION.  11 

in  dear  years,  the  margin  of  wages,  or  profits,  over  the  bare 
wants  of  life  was  considerable  enough  to  fill  up  the  void,  even 
though  the  laborer  had  to  subsist  for  a  time  on  cheaper  food 
than  wheaten  bread.  Meat  was  plentiful ;  poultry  found  every- 
where; eggs  cheapest  of  all.  The  poorest  and  meanest  man 
had  no  absolute  and  insurmountable  impediment  put  on  his 
career,  if  he  would  seize  his  opportunity  and  make  use  of  it." 
Of  laborers  in  Lancashire,  England,  he  says  :  "  What  a  hus- 
bandman earned  with  fifteen  weeks'  work,  and  an  artisan  with 
ten  weeks'  work  in  1495,  a  whole  year's  labor  would  not  supply 
artisan  or  laborer  with  in  the  year  1725."  And  again  :  "  I  have 
stated  more  than  once  that  the  15th  century  and  the  first 
quarter  of  the  16th  were  the  golden  age  of  the  English  laborer, 
if  we  are  to  interpret  the  wages  which  he  earned  by  the  cost 
of  the  necessaries  of  life.  At  no  time  were  wages,  relatively 
speaking,  so  high,  and  at  no  time  was  food  so  cheap ;"  and 
laborers  worked  but  eight  hours  daily.  A  hundred  j-ears  ago 
Hallam  stated  "  that  however  the  laborer  has  derived  benefit 
from  the  cheapness  of  manufactured  commodities,  and  from 
many  inventions  of  common  utility,  he  is  much  inferior  in 
ability,  to  support  a  family,  to  his  ancestors  three  or  four  cen- 
turies ago."  He  states  the  facts  and  figures  which  led  him  to 
this  conclusion.  (Middle  Ages,  Chap.  IX,  Part  II.)  The  ad- 
vance of  civilization  in  the  18th  century  was  far  ahead  of  that 
in  the  15th  century,  and  jet  the  laborer  was  worse  off  than 
during  the  earlier  period.  Where  were  the  benignant  harmon- 
ies of  Bastiat's  economic  theories  in  those  days  ?  There  is  no 
absolute  law  guaranteeing  the  continuous  progress  of  any  class 
in  society.  Such  progress  is  forever  conditional,  and  with  a 
change  of  conditions  for  the  worse,  a  reaction  may  set  in 
which  no  available  force  can  resist. 

According  to  the  Atkinsonian  oracle,  it  is  the  competition 
of  capital  setting  up  improved  machinery  that  is  constantly 
improving  the  workingman's  condition.  Competition  of  capi- 
tal !  Is  that  the  only  form  of  competition  having  potency 
here  ?  How  about  the  competition  of  laborers  ?  and  what  are 


12  ABSOLUTE  ECONOMICS.          [Chap.  I. 

the  conditions  which  moderate  or  intensify  this  competition  ? 
Mr.  Atkinson  does  not  appear  to  know  anything  about  this 
side  of  the  shield,  although  he  is  pretending  to  tell  us  all 
about  it. 

The  chief  element  which  has  moderated  the  competition 
of  laborers  and  given  the  workingman's  world  its  buoyancy 
during  the  present  century,  is  to  be  found  in  the  varied,  rich, 
and  almost  boundless  resources  of  the  new  continents  east  and 
west,  which  have  constantly  drawn  off  the  surplus  of  working- 
men  from  the  populous  centres  of  Europe.  Let  the  newer  parts 
of  these  continents  be  now  sunk  into  the  sea, — the  catastrophe 
would  unsettle  some  of  the  absolute  dogmas  of  political  econ- 
omy. In  a  market  overstocked  with  laborers,  ignorant,  hungry, 
prolific  from  desperation,  bitterly  competing  for  something  to 
do,  what  would  there  be  to  stiffen  wages  and  cheer  the  life  of 
the  wage-earner  ?  Laborers  would  be  the  veriest  slaves,  and 
the  "pessimistic,  abhorrent  and  atheistic  dogma"  of  Malthus 
would  be  confirmed.  Let  us  not  be  duped  by  the  smiling  fet- 
iches conjured  up  from  the  domain  of  absolute  economics  ! 

This  is  not  a  mere  exercise  in  economical  dialectics.  The 
attempt  to  create  the  impression  that,  by  virtue  of  a  deep  law, 
the  working  men  of  the  world  are  necessarily  on  the  winning 
side,  is  to  excuse  the  encroachment  of  organized  greed,  if  not 
indeed  to  screen  the  methods  of  rascality  itself.  It  goes  far 
to  encourage  measures  which  are  sapping  the  very  foundations 
on  which  the  prosperity  of  the  work-people  must  rest.  It 
justifies  the  infliction  of  taxes  in  disregard  of  relative  ability 
to  pay.  It  justifies  political  inaction  while  corporate  power  by 
combination  escapes  competition,  and  taxes  the  people  at  will. 
It  justifies  the  squandering  of  the  public  lands  on  corporations 
and  sj-ndicates,  when  they  should  be  scrupulously  preserved 
for  homes  for  the  people.  What  matter,  if  by  a  law  of  things 
the  ratio  of  products  to  the  share  of  labor  is  found  to  become 
relatively,  absolutel}',  and  eternally  greater  anyhow ! 

6.  FAMILIAR  WITH  THE  ABSOLUTE. — Absolute  economics  is 
invoked  by  reformers  as  well  as  by  anti-reformers.  Mr.  Henry 


Sec,  6.]  FAMILIAR  WITH  THE  ABSOLUTE.  13 

George's  scheme  admits  of  no  qualifications  or  conditions ;  it 
is  absolute.  Rent  is  the  cause  of  all  evil,  and  the  confiscation 
of  rent  will  remove  it  all.  The  remedy  is  sovereign  and  ab- 
solute (Progress  and  Poverty,  p.  364).  "Absolute  " — the  word 
is  apter  than  I  knew,  for  now  comes  an  apostle  of  the  Georgian 
gospel  who  speaks  with  authority  from  the  Absolute.  (Man's 
Birthright.  By  Edward  H.  G.  Clark).  Through  the  avenues 
opened  by  Kant  and  Hegel,  this  writer  has  become  quite 
familiar  with  the  Absolute,  and  now  that  he  delivers  a  new 
and  final  revelation  in  economics  from  the  Ultimate  Source 
of  all  knowledge,  we  ought  to  accept  it  with  humility  and 
thankfulness.  It  is  true  that  some  of  us  have  been  studying 
the  subject  of  political  economy  for  a  quarter  of  a  century, 
Mr.  Clark  for  only  four  years  ;  but  this  should  make  no  differ- 
ence when  it  comes  to  the  final  word  from  the  Absolute.  Mr. 
Clark  says  :  "  I  wish  to  impress  upon  the  mind  of  the  reader 
with  all  the  emphasis  possible  to  human  language,  that  what  I 
have  termed  the  principle  of  ownership,  or  the  higher  law 
of  property,  does  not  rest  for  its  validity  on  any  man's  judg- 
ment, advocacy,  or  opposition.  It  is  not  a  waif  of  theory.  It 
is  a  fixture  of  the  Absolute  imbedded  in  the  constitution  of  the 
universe.  In  other  words,  it  is  one  of  the  structural  relations 
between  mind  and  matter,  and  so  is  just  as  actual  as  mind  and 
matter  themselves,  or  as  time  and  space.  But  in  the  evolution 
of  our  world,  this  great  fundamental  law,  like  all  other  basic 
laws  of  the  cosmos,  has  come  clearly  to  human  view  only 
through  a  form  of  individual  consciousness  specially  fitted  to 
find  it.  The  time  for  it  has  arrived,  and  [discovered  by  David 
Reeves  Smith],  it  is  here." 

This  "  higher  law  of  property  "  is  that  all  mankind  (the  con- 
scious) conjointly  own  the  earth  and  all  the  wealth  therein  (the 
unconscious).  All  men  are  the  rightful  owners,  but  all  are 
not  in  possession ;  then  how  are  they  to  come  to  their  own  ? 
By  means  of  an  ad-valorem  tax  of  two  per  cent  per  annum 
on  all  assets.  Every  period  of  fifty  years  this  tax  would 
of  course  bring  into  the  treasury  a  sum  equal  to  the  entire 


14  CLASS  BIAS.  [Chap.  II. 

wealth  of  the  world.  Fifty  years  is  taken  as  the  life-time  of 
one  generation  ;  and  the  aggregate  of  taxes  for  this  period,  be- 
ing the  equivalent  of  all  the  wealth  of  the  world,  is  to  be  the 
the  property  of  one  generation  which  thus  receives  what  it  is 
entitled  to  by  the  higher  law  of  property.  This  is  its  birth- 
right ;  but  how  is  it  to  realize  its  possession  of  all  this  wealth  ? 
Not  by  redistribution  to  individuals,  but  by  redistribution  "  in 
common  public  benefits." 

It  may  work  well  enough  to  go  to  the  Absolute  for  a  fun- 
damental principle,  but  when  it  comes  to  practice  under  it,  we 
have  to  get  along  without  the  Absolute  ;  and  then  the  trouble 
begins.  One  might  raise  a  question  about  the  results  of  dis- 
tribution under  the  play  of  apparently  ineradicable  human 
foibles,  but  there  is  an  air  of  such  absolute  confidence,  that 
critics  are  virtually  warned  off  the  premises.  I  infer  from  the 
reading  of  Mr.  Clark's  interesting  little  book,  that  even 
good  things  in  economics  may  be  damaged  by  forgetting  that 
they  belong  to  the  domain  of  the  relative  and  are  separated  by 
an  impassable  gulf  from  all  metaphysical  notions  about  the 
Absolute. 

The  subject  of  absolute  economics  will  receive  incidental 
illustration  in  some  of  the  chapters  which  follow. 


CHAPTER  II 
CLASS  BIAS. 

7.  BIASES  IN  GENERAL.  —  In  the  course  of  this  study  I  have 
become  more  than  ever  impressed  with  the  power  of  what  may 
be  called  the  bias  of  aristocracy  to  direct  both  legislation  and 
administration.  Every  class  in  society,  every  coterie,  every 
set,  high  or  low,  rich  or  poor,  has  its  peculiar  bias  like  an 
atmosphere  through  which  it  looks  at  outward  objects.  Some 
objects  it  thus  sees  magnified  or  distorted,  or  belittled,  and 


SeC.  7.]  BIASES  IN  GENERAL.  15 

some  it  cannot  see  at  all.  "  What  we  see  depends  on  what  we 
are;"  or  rather,  what  we  see  depends  on  what  we  want  to  see. 
The  covert  bias  which  infests  almost  every  mind,  pushing  aside 
what  is  offensive  to  interests,  tastes,  or  wishes,  is  a  powerful 
factor  in  determining  what  we  shall  see,  or  not  see.  Most 
have  this  bias,  and  most  are  unconscious  that  they  are  ever 
influenced  by  it. 

Biases  take  form  largely  under  the  molding  influence  of  in- 
terests, or  supposed  interests.  It  has  been  well  said  that 
gravitation  itself  would  be  called  in  question,  if  the  interests 
of  a  set  were  to  be  subserved  thereby.  It  is  not  necessary 
that  all  who  are  affected  by  the  particular  bias  shall  have  an 
equal  share,  or  any  share  at  all,  in  the  real  or  supposed  inter- 
ests out  of  which  the  bias  grows.  The  few  may  fill  the  social  at- 
mosphere about  them  with  their  own  feelings,  so  that  their  asso- 
ciates come  into  full  emotional  sympathy  with  them.  Feeling 
is  contagious,  and  the  few  who  feel  intensely  may  infect  a 
great  many.  And  some  who  do  not  feel  may  imitate,  and 
hence  all  the  ambitious  classes  are  infested  with  snobbery. 
In  a  sense  mankind  are  rational ;  not  so  rational,  however,  but 
the  intellect  is  largely  the  servant  of  the  feelings.  An  interest 
finds  its  way  into  the  feelings  ;  these  feelings  spread  by  con- 
tagion until  an  entire  group  becomes  affected  therewith,  when 
mutual  sympathy  confirms  the  common  sentiment,  and  not  a 
doubt  remains  of  its  justness.  The  bias  which  coincides  with 
the  interests  of  a  class,  or  sect,  is  far  more  powerful  than  a 
merely  individual  bias,  because  it  becomes  strengthened  by 
sympath}r,  and  reenforced  by  mutual  statement  and  affirma- 
tion, till  there  is  no  place  for  a  doubt  or  a  question.  It  may 
thus  become  even  a  passion,  and  mold  itself  into  ideals  as 
delusive  as  lovers'  dreams.  The  bias  of  partisans  may  thus 
at  times  become  heated  into  passion,  and  prove  itself  equal  to 
any  outrage  on  truth.  The  bias  of  class,  with  more  quiet, 
may  be  equally  determined,  and  may  carry  its  purposes  by 
means  no  less  unscrupulous.  An  isolated  individual  bias  of 
this  power  would  be  called  insanity. 


16  CLASS  BIAS.  [Chap.  II 

When  any  matter  comes  up  which  is  related  to  interest  or 
bias,  the  feelings,  not  the  intellect,  usually  determine  what 
form  the  judgment  shall  take.  One  may  readily  see  this  when 
watching  the  proceedings  of  the  House  or  Senate  at  Washing- 
ton. Questions  will  take  the  partisan  form  when  it  certainly 
requires  fine  discernment  to  discover  in  what  the  grounds  for 
partisan  division  consist.  So  intellectually  obscure  at  times  is 
the  cause  of  such  division  that  one  suspects  it  as  gregarious 
rather  than  intellectual,  and  that  the  many  are  directed  by  the 
nod  of  a  leader.  This  seemed  to  be  the  case  when  representa- 
tives filibustered  against  Carlisle's  three  per  cent  funding  bill, 
and  permitted  it  to  pass  only  when  they  had  ascertained  the 
probability  of  a  veto,  although  within  the  next  three  months 
Secretary  Windom  was  refunding  at  three  per  cent  without  au- 
thority of  law.  Far-seeing  filibusters  ! 

Equally  ready  is  the  Senate  to  divide  on  party  lines.  We 
might  perhaps  readily  enough  understand  why  a  bill  to  divide 
a  territory  and  admit  part  of  it  into  the  Union  as  a  State, 
might  be  a  party  question;  but  one  can  not  always  tell  why  a 
mere  motion  to  adjourn  should  be  so  regarded.  A  land  for- 
feiture bill  ought  not  to  divide  the  wise  Senate  on  party  lines, 
yet,  December  9,  1884,  Mr.  Slater's  motion  to  take  up  a  bill 
of  this  kind  was  lost  on  a  party  vote,  except  that  Mr.  Van 
Wyck  voted  with  the  Democrats. 

There  arc,  too,  interests  of  a  local  character  with  their  cor- 
responding biases,  which  ma}*  be  seen  cropping  out  at  any 
time,  especially  in  the  House.  Congress  is  made  up  of  lawyers 
and  of  persons  not  lawyers,  all  of  whom  have  constituents  to 
please,  and  who  are  expected  to  act  as  the  attorneys  and  ad- 
vocates of  the  local  and  class  interests  of  their  clients.  We 
frequentlj*  see  attempts  to  further  certain  local  measures,  not 
only  by  direct  advocacy,  but  by  trading  for  help,  or  by  oppos- 
ing some  rival  claim  on  the  aggregate  of  appropriations.  Dur- 
ing the  last  session  of  Congress  (1884-85),  the  Rivers  and 
Harbors  bill  was  attacked  as  unduly  favoring  the  South,  al- 
though more  than  two-thirds  of  the  committee  which  framed 


Sec.  #.]  CLASS  LAWS.  17 

the  bill,  were  from  the  North.  Certain  districts,  cities,  and 
railways  are  interested  in  the  east  and  west  movement  of  com- 
merce; hence  the  difficulties  and  expense  of  improving  the 
Mississippi  river  were  dwelt  upon  with  emphasis.  Members 
living  west  of  Chicago,  though  earnest  in  support  of  Reagan's 
Interstate  Commerce  bill,  had  doubts  whether  it  was  advisable 
to  forbid  charging  more  for  a  short  than  a  long  haul.  Were  it 
not  that  the  matter  is  complicated  by  railroad  affiliations,  one 
might  guess  pretty  well  the  general  localit}-  of  a  member  by 
his  attitude  toward  the  Hennepin  Canal. 

Another  form  of  interest  with  its  appropriate  bias — an  in- 
sidious and  reprehensible  form,  of  which  the  great  public  has 
far  too  little  consciousness — is  that  which  actuates  members 
to  favor  strong  men  in  society,  who  are  seeking  to  secure  cer- 
tain business  privileges,  which  the  many  or  the  weak  cannot 
have.  All  these  forms  of  interest  and  bias  revolve  around  self 
as  the  centre.  The  legislator  or  the  administrative  officer 
grants  favors  for  favors  in  return.  If  it  be  a  general  constitu- 
ency that  is  made  happy,  a  reelection  may  be  secured.  If  it 
be  seme  great  corporate  power  that  is  favored,  the  favor  of 
political  preferment,  achieved  by  secret  and  devious  methods, 
may  be  expected  in  return. 

Then,  while  we  are  wondering  at  the  infinite  diversity  of 
opinion  which  is  called  forth  from  congressmen  and  senators 
by  certain  proposed  measures,  we  shall  miss  the  interpretation 
greatly  if  we  attribute  it  to  the  exercise  of  a  purely  judicial 
temper.  It  is  the  work  of  attorneys,  and  not  of  judges ;  and 
there  is  a  bias  of  some  kind  in  almost  every  opinion  given  and 
argument  made. 

8.  CLASS  LAWS. — In  all  law-making  since  civilization  be- 
gan, class  legislation  has  been  a  prominent  feature, — class  leg- 
islation always  intended  to  be  in  the  interest  of  the  strong 
class  or  classes  that  made  the  laws.  This  is  but  human  nature, 
however ; — "  give  men  power  and  they  will  use  it."  Law- 
makers with  the  class  bias,  of  which  they  may  be  quite  un- 
conscious, would  think  it  a  waste  of  power  not  to  make  the 
a 


18  CLASS  BIAS.  [Chap.  11. 

laws  to  suit  themselves.  Emploj-crs  and  not  laborers  made  the 
laws  for  the  regulation  of  laborers  in  England ;  and,  while 
professing  to  have  the  good  of  the  laborers  at  heart,  they  im- 
posed restrictions  which,  had  they  been  efficacious,  would  have 
made  the  working  people  slaves.  After  the  great  plague 
wages  rose,  and  in  1351  the  Statute  of  Laborers  was  enacted 
to  compel  people  to  work  at  the  old  prices.  This  form  of  ar- 
bitrary interference  was  kept  up  for  centuries.  When  one  law 
failed,  another  was  tried.  Laborers  were  not  allowed  to  move 
from  one  place  to  another  without  an  official  permit,  on  pain 
of  being  put  in  the  stocks.  They  were  not  allowed  to  change 
their  occupation,  and  children  must  pursue  the  calling  of  their 
parents.  It  was  decided  not  only  what  hired  laborers  should 
receive,  but  what  food  they  should  eat  and  what  clothes  they 
should  wear.  Such  laws  not  only  hampered  the  workingman, 
but  harmed  his  employers ;  but  none  the  less  was  the  instinct 
prompting  such  enactments  that  of  promoting  the  class  inter- 
ests of  those  who  made  the  laws;  and  what  refused  to  be  regu- 
lated had  its  revenges  on  the  regulators.  This  lesson,  which 
should  have  been  plain  from  the  first,  was  not  learned  so  as 
to  have  results  till  the  present  century.  Even  yet  it  does  not 
bear  full  fruits,  and  the  old  bias  has  a  good  deal  of  vitalit}-  in 
it  Landlords  in  England  are  still  preferred  creditors  and  can 
take  the  property  of  their  tenants  till  their  claims  are  satisfied; 
and  they  think  this  right.  Acts  to  secure  tenants  for  improve- 
ments they  have  made  become  void  by  provisions  which  enable 
the  landlord  to  evade  the  act ;  and  he  thinks  it  right  that  he 
should  evade  it.  Tenants  are  beaten  by  renting  to  them  at 
higher  rates  in  consequence  of  improvements  they  have  made. 
The  strong  classes  still  rule  in  many  ways. 

Previous  to  the  Revolution  in  France,  the  weight  of  taxes 
was  thrown  upon  the  poorer  classes.  Taxation  was  direct, 
and  the  nobility  and  clergy  were  exempt,  while  the  peasants 
like  mules  patient  of  their  burdens  were  loaded  down.  Of 
course,  the  working  people  had  no  sensibilities  which  the  aris- 
tocrats were  bound  to  respect,  and  the  laws  were  in  general 


Sec.  9J]  MONOPOLY  BIASES.  19 

made  to  suit  the  people  of  fine  sensibilities ; — all  of  which 
was  done  without  the  least  consciousness  that  it  was  not  in 
accordance  with  the  divine  order  of  things. 

9.  MONOPOLY  BIASES. — Wherever  monopolies  exist,  there 
are  influences  constantly  at  work  to  create  and  maintain  a 
bias  in  their  favor.  This  was  well  exemplified  in  the  case 
of  the  East  India  company.  It  was  a  desirable  monopoly, 
those  who  enjoyed  its  privileges  became  rich,  they  influenced 
public  sentiment,  and  became  members  of  Parliament ;  and  it 
required  a  struggle  of  a  hundred  years  to  overthrow  the 
monopoly  and  give  enterprise  at  large  equal  opportunity  in 
the  trade  of  India.  The  more  profitable  and  unjust  a  monop- 
oly is,  the  deeper  it  fixes  prejudice,  and  the  more  danger  there 
is  in  attacking  it.  This  was  illustrated  by  the  slavery  bias  in 
the  United  States.  It  is  everywhere  and  always  true.  Those 
who  opposed  the  aggressions  of  the  rich  on  land  belonging  to 
the  Roman  people  were  called  agrarians,  and  their  lives  paid 
the  penaltjr  of  their  courage  in  a  just  cause.  It  was  so  in 
Sparta.  The  strong  do  not  allow  their  usurped  privileges  to 
be  assailed  without  making  such  resistance  as  the  spirit  of  the 
times  permits.  "What  Adam  Smith  states  of  the  case  in  Eng- 
land has  been  almost  true  of  this  country.  He  saj-s :  "  The 
member  of  Parliament  who  supports  every  proposal  for 
strengthening  monopoly  is  sure  to  acquire  great  reputation  for 
understanding  trade,  but  also  great  popularity  and  influence 
with  an  order  of  men  whose  numbers  and  wealth  render  them 
of  great  importance.  If  he  opposes  them,  on  the  contrary, 
and  still  more,  if  he  have  authority  enough  to  be  able  to 
thwart  them,  neither  the  most  acknowledged  probity,  nor  the 
highest  rank,  nor  the  greatest  public  services  can  protect  him 
from  the  most  infamous  abuse  and  detraction,  from  personal 
insults,  nor  sometimes  from  real  danger  arising  from  the  influ- 
ence of  furious  and  disappointed  monopolists." 

There  has  always  been  a  coalition  of  the  strongest  classes  in 
society,  in  which  wealth  and  blood  have  constituted  the  bond, 
and  at  the  same  time,  the  means  of  operating  upon  and  secur- 


20  CLASS  BIAS.  [Chap.  II. 

ing  the  subserviency  of  other  classes.  And  it  is  perhaps  one 
of  the  lessons  of  history  that  the  privileges  of  class  have  never 
been  secured  and  maintained  without  accompanying  forms  of 
moral  contamination.  That  friend  of  the  people,  J.  S.  Mill, 
observes :  "  I  thought  the  predominance  of  the  aristocratic 
classes,  the  noble  and  the  rich,  in  the  English  constitution,  an 
evil  worth  any  struggle  to  get  rid  of;  not  on  account  of  taxes  or 
any  such  comparatively  small  inconvenience,  but  as  the  great 
demoralizing  agency  in  the  country.  Demoralizing  first,  because 
it  made  the  conduct  of  the  government  an  example  of  gross 
public  immorality  through  the  predominance  of  private  over 
public  interests  in  the  State,  and  the  abuse  of  the  power  of  leg- 
islation for  the  advantage  of  classes.  Secondly,  and  in  a  still 
greater  degree,  because  the  respect  of  the  multitude  always  at- 
taching itself  principally  to  that  which,  in  the  existing  state 
of  society,  is  the  chief  passport  to  power;  and  under  English 
institutions,  riches,  hereditary  or  acquired,  being  the  most  ex- 
clusive source  of  political  importance ;  riches  and  the  signs 
of  riches  were  almost  the  only  things  really  respected,  and  the 
life  of  the  people  was  mainl}'  devoted  to  the  pursuit  of  them." 
Mill's  very  first  essay  was  written  to  combat  the  current  op- 
pinion  that  the  rich  were  superior  to  the  poor  in  moral  quali- 
ties. But  essay- writing  is  feeble  compared  with  the  ostenta- 
tions and  devices  of  aristocracy  to  create  public  sentiment.  The 
tinsel  of  aristocratic  life  is  flared  in  the  face  of  the  people,  and 
it  proves  to  be  too  much  for  poor  human  nature.  The  rich 
and  high-born  have  always  assumed  the  air  of  moral  superior- 
ity, and  the  poor  have  been  judged  as  if  they  all  stood  on  the 
same  level,  and  that  level  the  lowest.  Never  have  the  ruling 
castes  hesitated  in  their  self-righteousness,  Turk  and  Persian 
like,  to  break  the  dishes  from  which  others  have  eaten.  There 
is  always  danger  that  the  set  in  power  will  come  to  regard 
itself  as  in  some  way  endowed  with  the  right  to  privileges 
in  which  others  should  have  no  share.  This  comes  from  the 
habit  of  regarding  all  things  from  self  as  the  centre,  in  the 
same  narrow  and  egotistic  way,  in  which  mankind  formerly 


Sec.  10.]          ILLUSTRATIONS  OP  THE  BANKERS'  BIAS.  21 

regarded  the  entire  universe  as  made  for  their  sole  benefit. 
It  is  not  a  grace  of  the  uppermost  in  society  to  put  themselves 
in  others'  places,  and  humanize  themselves  with  a  fellow  feel- 
ing for  all.  But  there  is  this  for  encouragment,  that  these 
biases  grow  less  as  the  world  grows  older ;  and  even  essays  arc 
not  without  use. 

10.  ILLUSTRATIONS  OF  THE  BANKERS'  BIAS.— Human  nature 
does  not  get  away  from  itself,  and  the  equivalent  of  what  we 
find  in  the  old  world  is  to  be  looked  for  in  the  new.  The  his- 
tory of  the  United  States  Bank  ver}-  well  illustrates  the  bias- 
ing influence  in  society  of  a  great  corporation  struggling  to 
maintain  its  privileges.  It  assumed  to  have  on  its  side  all  the 
morality,  intelligence,  and  respectability  in  the  country.  It 
could  afford  from  its  lofty  position  to  speak  contemptuously 
of  the  President  of  the  United  States.  So  completely  did  it 
command  the  press  and  inspire  its  iterations  and  reiterations, 
that  even  the  discerning  Do  Tocqueville,  when  in  this  countr}', 
was  duped  by  the  prevailing  lingo.  The  influence  of  the  Bank 
gave  tone,  not  only  to  the  periodical  literature  of  the  day,  but 
largely  to  the  proceedings  of  Congress  itself.  It  was  a  re- 
spectable thing  to  be  on  the  side  of  the  Bank,  and  too(generally 
was  it  true,  as  John  Randolph  once  said,  that  a  man  might  as 
well  preach  Christianity  at  Constantinople  as  to  preach  against 
banks  in  Congress.  In  1832  the  U.  S.  Bank  was  declared  to 
be  in  a  sound  condition  and  worthy  to  administer  the  govern- 
ment interest  therein,  because  a  large  number  of  congressmen 
were  stockholders,  debtors  and  attorneys  of  the  Bank  and 
loyally  stood  by  it.  It  expended  hundreds  of  thousands  of 
dollars  in  the  struggle  for  continued  existence,  and  its  final 
overthrow  was  due  more  to  its  corrupt  practices  and  to  an  un- 
usual combination  of  circumstances,  than  to  any  organized 
movement  in  the  interest  of  right  government  that  is  to  be 
looked  for  in  the  ordinary  course  of  history. 

A  remarkable  specimen  of  a  class  bias  is  given  by  Mr. 
Horace  White,  and  the  banker,  Mr.  Coe,  in  an  article  on  Money 
and  its  Substitutes  in  Lalor's  Cyclopaedia  of  Political  Science 


22  CLASS  BIAS.  {.Chap.  II. 

It  is  therein  taught  that,  while  greenbacks  are  credit  money, 
bank  paper  is  not  credit  money.  Bank  notes  are  "  tickets  "  for 
the  circulation  of  property,  while  greenbacks  represent  no  such 
property.  The  statement  is  made  as  the  pope  would  declare 
a  dogma — as  final.  It  is  asserted  in  various  waj-s  that  bank 
notes  always  represent  property  in  circulation,  while  greenbacks 
never  do.  Yet  we  all  know  that  whenever  greenbacks  change 
hands,  articles  of  property  also  change  hands,  the  one  balanc- 
ing the  other.  It  is  not  as  Mr.  Coe  says,  as  if  one  should  draw 
a  bill  on  Liverpool  and  send  no  corresponding  property.  The 
property  alwa}*s  accompanies  the  greenback.  The  man  who 
had  the  greenback  now  gets  the  property,  and  the  man  that 
had  the  property  now  walks  off  with  the  greenback,  and  this 
"  ticket "  is  perfectly  good  in  his  hands  for  property  again 
whenever  he  wishes  to  make  the  exchange, — just  as  good  as  a 
bank  note,  and  it  performs  precisely  the  same  function. 

But  I  may  be  told  that  the  greenbacks  were  originally  credit 
money.  Indeed !  The  bank  notes  are  given  to  the  banks — 
the  purest  credit  money  conceivable.  The  banks  give  nothing 
whatever  in  exchange  for  them.  The  government  onby  holds 
the  bonds;  it  does  not  own  them  or  it  might  burn  them, — it 
only  holds  the  bonds,  the  banks  own  them  and  get  interest  on 
them,  besides  having  ninety  per  cent  of  their  value  additional 
in  bank  notes  which  the  government  has  given  them  to  be  theirs 
out  and  out  for  twenty  years,  These  notes,  when  they  get  into 
circulation,  represent  property  precisely  as  greenbacks  do,  but 
in  no  other  way.  If  greenbacks  are  credit  money,  bank  notes 
are  credit  money,  and  nobody  except  one  with  a  bankers'  bias 
could  ever  think  of  them  as  anything  else.  Now,  while  the 
banker  gets  interest  on  his  bonds  and  interest  on  his  "tickets," 
affording  him  a  clear  profit  on  business  of  eight  to  ten  per 
cent  per  annum,  he  finds  a  rich  soil  for  bias  to  grow  in.  Most 
investors  without  special  privileges  get  only  half  as  much 
profit,  and  they  are  certainly  excusable  if  they  do  not,  like 
docile  catechumens,  accept  this  bankers'  dogma.  Its  promul- 
gators  may  have  been  as  sincere  as  the  apostles  of  any  dogma, 


Sec.  10.~\          ILLUSTRATIONS  OP  THE  BANKERS'  BIAS.  23 

but  this  does  not  prevent  it,  when  incorporated  into  a  valuable 
book  of  reference,  from  poisoning  the  sources  of  knowledge, 
and  vitiating  public  opinion  on  this  subject.  Although  it  has 
been  asserted  again  and  again  that  there  is  no  profit  to  banks 
in  issuing  paper  mono}',  yet  does  the  banking  interest  show 
itself  jealous  of  all  forms  of  paper  money  but  its  own,  while 
it  clings  with  tenacity  to  the  privilege  of  making  the  people's 
paper  money  for  the  people's  good.  It  is  the  amiable  bias 
of  parents  to  see  virtues  in  their  children  others  can  not  see, 
and  bankers  are  not  to  be  blamed  for  the  banker's  dogmatism 
of  bias  ;  but  such  dogmatism  is  no  part  of  political  and  econom- 
ical science. 

Akin  to  this  is  the  pretty  theory  about  the  issues  of  banks 
regulating  themselves.  "  When  trade  is  brisk,  the  notes, 
if  issued  according  to  the  banking  principle,  will  be  plentiful ; 
when  trade  is  slack,  they  will  find  their  way  home  for  redemp- 
tion. This  is  as  it  should  be."  (Coe  and  White.)  That  is, 
bank  issues  are  self-regulating.  Yet  these  same  economists 
teach  us  that  if  the  government  issues  notes  in  answer  to  a 
speculative  demand  for  paper  money,  it  creates  a  disease  of 
the  currency  which  craves  more  paper  money;  that  is,  what- 
ever may  be  the  amount  the  government  issues,  it  is  ab- 
sorbed in  higher  prices  for  all  things,  and  the  demand  for 
more  paper  becomes  even  greater  than  before.  Is  it  not 
singular  that  an  addition  of  bank  paper  under  brisk  trade 
does  not  inflate  prices  and  become  absorbed  therein,  while  an 
addition  of  government  paper  would  so  inflate  prices  and  be- 
come absorbed  therein  ?  There  is  no  such  difference,  how- 
ever ;  it  is  when  trade  is  slack  that  the  difference  comes  in. 
The  people  who  are  then  short  clamor  for  more  money,  and  the 
government  would  not  be  likely,  under  such  circumstances,  to 
contract  its  circulation.  When  banks  furnish  the  paper  mone}-, 
and  business  men  who  are  embarrassed  under  dull  trade  ask 
for  help,  help  is  very  cautiously  afforded.  Whether  depreciated 
or  at  par,  the  two  kinds  of  paper  money  act  precisely  alike  on 
business,  and  there  is  no  self-regulation  about  either.  Both 


24  CLASS  BIAS.  Chap.  II. 

have  to  be  regulated,  and  banks  always  regulate  to  suit  tlieir 
own  class  interests,  and  preach  to  suit  their  own  class  bias. 

11.  THE  MASK  OP  CREDIT-STRENGTHENING. — Perhaps  noth- 
ing better  illustrates  the  power  of  a  bias  to  get  itself  made 
into  law,  than  that  which  took  form  as  the  Credit-Strengthen- 
ing Act  of  18G9.  There  had  been  five  or  six  different  acts 
authorizing  the  issue  of  bonds,  and  only  one  of  them  provided 
that  the  bonds  should  be  paid  in  gold,  that  authorizing  the 
issue  of  the  i%o8-  All  the  others  were  issued  substantially 
under  a  contract,  the  terms  of  which  were  plainly  defined  in 
existing  law.  There  were  three  acts  for  the  issue  of  U.  S. 
notes,  and  these  acts  were  all  explicit  in  providing  that  the 
notes  should  be  "  lawful  money  and  a  legal  tender  in  payment 
of  all  debts,  public  and  private,  within  the  United  States,  except 
duties  on  imports  and  interest "  as  specified.  These  U.  S.  notes 
carry  on  their  face  this  notice  to  all  who  use  them  :  "  This 
note  is  receivable  at  par  in  all  parts  of  the  United  States,  in 
payment  of  all  taxes  and  excises  and  all  other  dues  to  the 
United  States,  except  duties  on  imports,  and  also  for  all  sala- 
ries or  other  debts  and  demands  owing  by  the  United  States  to 
individuals,  corporations,  and  associations  within  the  United 
States,  except  interest  on  the  public  debt." 

When  the  Credit-Strengthening  Act  was  under  consideration 
in  the  Senate,  Mr.  Morton  declared  that  the  laws  creating  the 
greenbacks  (U.  S.  Notes)  "is  a  part  of  the  contract  under 
which  all  these  bonds  were  subsequently  sold,"  and  that 
"  broader,  more  comprehensive  and  explicit  declarations  of  the 
law-making  power,"  he  believed  he  had  never  read.  Mr. 
Morrill  replied  patronizingly,  assuring  the  Senate  that  the  Sen- 
ator from  Indiana,  able  as  he  was,  could  not  revive  an  interest 
in  the  matter  discussed,  and  that  no  measure  had  met  with  a 
warmer  welcome  from  the  people  than  this  Credit-Strengthen- 
ing Act.  All  amendments  offered  to  place  government  credit- 
ors on  the  same  footing  with  other  creditors  were  promptly 
voted  down,  and  the  bill  passed  by  a  large  majority.  Only 
thirteen  Senators  voted  against  it :  Bayard,  Carpenter,  Cas- 


Sec.  H.~]          THE  MASK  OF  CREDIT-STRENGTHENING.  25 

serty,  Cole,  Davis,  Morton,  Osborn,  Rice,  Ross,  Spencer,  Stock- 
ton, Thurman,  and  Vickars.  Forty -two  voted  for  it,  ten  were 
absent.  In  the  House,  it  had  passed,  yeas  98,  nays  47,  not 
voting  49.  Beck,  B.  F.  Butler,  Holman,  Knott,  Kerr  voted 
nay;  Garfield  and  Schenck  were  among  the  yeas. 

This  bill  was  passed  under  the  pretext  of  strengthening  the 
credit  of  the  government.  The  preamble  was  a  mask  under 
which  a  retroactive  act  was  passed  to  make  a  discrimination 
in  favor  of  government  creditors  and  against  the  tax-payers 
of  the  country.  It  was  very  patriotic  to  strengthen  the  credit 
of  the  government ;  and  to  vote  against  anything  of  this  char- 
acter, was,  of  course,  not  quite  the  loyal  thing  to  do.  But 
the  government  had  good  credit  already ;  all  it  had  to  do  to 
maintain  its  credit  was  to  pay  its  debts  according  to  contract. 
As  the  law  stood,  all  the  bonds  but  the  io/408  were  payable 
in  the  currency  in  which  all  other  creditors  were  paid.  Of 
course,  when  resumption  should  take  place,  the  bonds  would 
be  paid  in  coin  or  its  equivalent ;  but  so  would  all  other  debts. 
But  if  resumption  should  not  take  place,  there  was  no  sound 
reason  why  bondholders  should  fare  better  than  other  creditors 
at  the  expense  of  the  tax-payers.  They  had  bought  the  bonds 
without  any  guaranty  that  payment  would  be  made  in  gold. 
"But  they  expected  payment  to  be  so  made."  Did  they? 
Then,  that  illustrates  the  bias  of  an  interest  ready  to  use  its 
opportunities  to  consummate  a  job.  They  paid  their  money 
precisely  as  the  purchasers  of  all  other  property  did,  subject 
to  the  contingencies  of  the  future,  and  there  was  no  reason  or 
justice  in  special  legislation  for  the  benefit  of  bondholders. 

Because  the  bonds  were  not  yet  due,  and  because  after  re- 
sumption they  would  be  payable  in  gold  anywa}',  it  was  held 
that,  therefore,  this  measure  while  very  useful  was  practically 
inert  and  perfectly  innocent.  If  the  act  was  not  intended  to 
give  additional  value  to  the  bonds,  it  is  difficult  to  see  in  what 
its  strengthening  efficacy  consisted.  But  even  on  the  assump- 
tion that  it  was  a  purely  theoretical  measure,  it  must  be  set 
down  as  a  movement  to  humor  the  plutocratic  bias.  Congress 


26  CLASS  BIAS.  \Chap.  II. 

is  not  apt  to  insist  tenaciously  on  "  barren  idealities ;"  the 
measure  was  meant  to  make  sure  of  substantial  benefits  under 
the  pressure  of  an  interested  class.  The  bill  had  passed  the 
previous  session,  but  President  Johnson  had  refused  to  sign 
it,  and  now  it  was  one  of  the  very  first  measures  attended  to 
under  the  called  session.  No  doubt  the  ex-President's  opposi- 
tion had  strengthened  the  scheme  with  partisans.  Mr.  Upton 
informs  us  that  those  who  opposed  the  war  opposed  this  act. 
The  people  of  whose  cordial  welcome  Mr.  Morrill  spoke,  were 
pretty  busy  attending  to  their  own  affairs,  and  knew  only  too 
little  of  what  was  going  on  in  Congress.  It  was  eas}-  to  mis- 
take the  very  warm  interest  of  the  few  for  the  approval  of  the 
many. 

Now,  what  proportion  of  the  people  in  this  country  were 
directly  interested  in  such  a  piece  of  legislation  ?  The  number 
of  bondholders  at  that  time  is  not  known,  but  a  few  years 
later  it  was  71,587,  besides  1527  banks,  insurance,  trust,  and 
express  companies.  Leaving  out  the  companies  and  counting 
a  family  of  five  persons  to  each  individual  bondholder,  there 
would  be  less  than  one-tenth  of  the  people  of  the  United  States 
favored  by  this  act.  Of  course,  there  were  individuals  and 
families  interested  in  the  bonds  held  by  banks  and  the  other 
companies ;  but  it  was  the  large  holders  and  not  the  needy 
small  ones,  from  whom  the  solicitation  came,  and  in  whose 
interest  the  law  was  made. 

This  was  a  sectional  as  well  as  a  class  measure.  There  were 
about  17,000  individual  bondholders  in  Massachusetts,  15,000 
in  New  York,  and  10,000  in  Pennsylvania,  while  there  were  but 
58  in  Georgia  and  283  in  the  great  State  of  Iowa.  Taking 
into  account  the  banks  and  companies,  the  discrimination 
against  the  West  and  South  would  be  shown  to  be  still  greater. 

But  wh}r  resort  at  all  to  a  measure  guaranteeing  legality  to 
the  greatest  possible  weight  of  the  public  debt  ?  Already  the 
bondholders  had  been  the  gainers  and  the  taxpayers  had  been 
the  losers.  These  bonds  had  been  paid  for  in  the  legal  tender 
of  the  da}-.  Some  of  them  had  been  bought  when  the  current 


SeC.  12.~\  THE  NAVAL  SUPERSTITION.  27 

dollar  was  worth  but  fifty  cents  in  gold,  and  the  government 
had  purchased  army  supplies  with  the  proceeds  at  more  than 
double  prices.  Were  the  requirements  of  statesmanship  indeed 
so  urgent,  that  Congress  should  now  make  these  bonds  sure 
of  payment  in  gold,  whether  other  creditors  got  such  payment 
or  not  ?  The  expenses  of  the  war  had  been  made  a  third 
greater  on  the  legal  tender  basis  than  they  would  have  been 
on  the  gold  basis  ;  that  is,  the  figures  indicating  the  debt  were 
already  a  billion  more  than  the  gold  basis  would  have  war- 
ranted. Every  year  these  figures  were  indicating  a  greater 
relative  value  under  the  appreciation  of  the  legal  tender 
notes  ;  and  if  some  of  the  bonds  should  fall  due  with  the  cur- 
rency a  few  points  below  gold,  still  the  bondholders  would 
have  the  best  of  the  bargain  and  the  taxpaj-ers  the  worst 
of  it.  The  law  was  in  its  very  spirit  a  flagrant  violation 
of  equity.  The  only  excuse  for  it  is  that  it  passed  at  a  time 
when  the  beneficiaries  of  government  were  luxuriating  beyond 
precedent,  and  the  people  were  too  much  absorbed  with  their 
own  prosperity  to  take  note  of  the  covert  methods  of  plunder 
in  vogue.  If  Congress  had  labored  to  protect  the  people 
against  plutocratic  aggression,  it  would  hardly  have  been  ap- 
preciated by  the  people  ;  but  laboring  as  it  did  to  help  on 
magnificent  jobs,  it  pleased  those  who  were  able  to  make 
public  opinion,  and  it  got  great  credit  for  patriotism  and 
statesmanship.  It  is  easy  to  move  in  the  direction  of  strong 
biases,  and  public  bodies  move  easiest  toward  appreciation 
and  reward. 

12.  THE  NAVAL  SUPERSTITION. — "We  are  the  only  people 
in  the  world  forbidden  by  legal  enactments  to  buy  foreign-built 
ships.  The  least  part  of  an  American  vessel  owned  by  a  for- 
eigner so  taints  the  whole  that  it  loses  its  American  privileges. 
If  an  American  resides  in  a  foreign  country  for  his  health,  the 
vessel  of  which  he  owns  a  part,  loses  its  rights  to  protection 
under  the  American  flag.  No  registry  can  be  had  for  an 
American  vessel  except  on  oath  that  no  foreigner  has  any 
interest  in  it.  Provision  is  made  by  law  that  no  foreigner 


28  CLASS  BIAS.  \Chap.  II. 

shall  command  an  American  vessel,  or  be  an  officer  of  any 
kind  on  it.  "  No  foreign-built  vessel,  or  vessel  in  part  owned 
by  a  subject  of  a  foreign  power,  can  enter  a  port  of  the  United 
States,  and  then  go  to  another  domestic  port  with  any  cargo, 
or  with  any  part  of  her  original  cargo  that  has  been  once  un- 
laden, without  having  previously  voyaged  to  and  touched  at 
some  other  port  of  some  foreign  country,  under  penalty  of  con- 
fiscation." No  vessel  that  has  been  once  sold  to  a  foreigner 
can  ever  become  an  American  ship  again.  If  an  American 
vessel  undergoes  repairs  in  a  foreign  county,  it  must  pay  duty 
on  the  same  when  it  returns  to  the  United  States.  Foreign 
vessels  in  our  ports,  having  to  replace  broken  machinery,  must 
pay  duties  on  the  same.  If  an  American  buys  a  foreign 
wreck  and  puts  repairs  on  it  to  a  value  less  than  three-fourths 
its  whole  value,  he  cannot  get  an  American  registry  on  his 
vessel.  American  vessels  engaged  in  foreign  trade  (except  in 
the  fisheries)  must  pa}'  a  tonnage  tax  of  thirty  cents  per  ton. 
All  vessels  from  a  foreign  country  must  carry  their  freight  to 
a  port  of  entry  (even  if  in  doing  so  it  is  necessary  to  pass  the 
port  of  delivery),  and  there  unlade,  when  the  goods  must  be 
reshipped  by  coasting  vessel  or  rail  to  the  place  of  destination. 
(Condensed  from  D.  A.  Wells  in  Cyclopaedia  of  Political 
Science.) 

No  wonder  the  American  merchant  marine  has  almost 
passed  out  of  existence  !  One  of  the  most  absurd  of  biases  is 
that  which  has  its  base  and  origin  in  superstition  ;  perhaps  it 
was  some  such  bias  that  dictated  our  navigation  laws,  or  it 
may  have  been,  indeed,  one  of  that  nondescript  sort  which  is 
frequently  met  with  among  the  very  positive  people  in  asy- 
lums. But  whatever  may  be  the  kind,  one  can  not  listen  to  a 
debate  in  Congress  on  naval  affairs,  without  becoming  convinced 
that  the  primitive  bias  is  still  pretty  strong  in  "survival." 

13.  BELIEF  FOR  Bio  DEBTORS. — The  aristocratic  bias  is 
perhaps  exemplified  in  the  aim  of  our  bankrupt  laws.  These 
afford  relief  to  the  big  debtors.  A  man  who  has  been  so  en- 
terprising as  to  get  in  debt  to  his  neighbors  several  thousand 


Sec.  14-~\  BENEFIT  OP  BIAS  FOR  THE  FEW.  29 

dollars  above  his  assets,  may  get  relief ;  but  the  honest  dealer 
who  has  managed  to  get  in  debt  only  199  dollars  (or  some 
such  sum),  must  support  his  family  on  his  small  resources,  and 
pay  his  debts  to  the  last  penny,  or  stand  condemned  as  a  cheat 
in  society.  The  enterprising  debtor  who  has  recklessly  sunk 
his  thousands  and  procured  release  under  a  benignant  law 
from  the  claims  of  creditors,  may  commence  again,  and  with 
a  privilege  from  obliging  legislators  to  tax  the  people,  he  may 
become  a  millionaire.  As  a  millionaire  he  commands,  while  the 
small  debtor  is  still  wrestling  honestly  and  earnestly  with 
fate.  Such  are  the  caprices  of  bias ;  and  they  are  so  common 
that  we  hardly  stop  to  think  of  them. 

14.  BENEFIT  OF  BIAS  FOR  THE  FEW. — There  is  a  peculiar 
force  in  society  which  passes  by  the  many  to  favor  the  few. 
One  of  these  forces  is  direct  in  its  bearing  on  legislation.  Is 
a  certain  act  of  legislation  in  the  interest  of  "  everj-bod}'," 
there  is  little  interest  in  it  by  anybody.  The  interest  is  too 
much  diffused,  and  there  is  but  little  effort  made  to  promote 
it.  Is  it  in  the  interest  of  the  few,  there  is  vigorous  agitation, 
if  this  is  necessary,  to  bring  it  about.  Yery  often,  indeed,  it 
is  secured  most  readily  and  surely  by  the  use  of  "  influence " 
in  the  lobby,  with  as  little  agitation  before  the  people  as  pos- 
sible. The  known  desire  of  a  few  distinguished  business  men  of 
wealth  is  usually  far  more  powerful  with  legislative  bodies  and 
executive  officers  than  the  known  desire  of  poor  and  unknown 
people.  The  pressure  that  our  Congress  and  administration 
at  Washington  most  feel,  is  not  the  pressure  of  a  popular 
sentiment  which  may  be  contemptuously  regarded  as  a  tem- 
porary gust  of  "popular  clamor;"  it  is  the  pressure  that  a  few 
strong  men  bring  to  bear  that  tells  most  efficientl}'.  A  good 
many  ex-members  of  Congress  and  shrewd  attorneys  haunt  the 
lobbies  in  the  immediate  interest  of  a  wealthy  few.  Besides 
considerations  of  a  more  weighty  and  tangible  kind  which 
somehow  or  other  make  themselves  felt,  there  is  a  bias  in  the 
air  which  prepossesses  the  judgment  of  public  men  in  favor 
of  the  efficient  agencies  in  society.  Witness  the  immense  land 


30  CLASS  BIAS.  [Chap.  II. 

grants  made  to  enterprising  corporations,  mostly  for  a  remote 
and  problematical  consideration.  It  had  become  the  fashion, 
and  Congress  played  at  the  game,  often  with  millions  of  the 
people's  acres  at  a  single  deal.  At  this  writing,  American  and 
foreign  syndicates  are  given  title  to  vast  tracts  of  land  in  our 
western  country  to  the  exclusion  of  families  needing  homes  ; 
and  yet,  while  titled  non-resident  landlords  arc  encouraged 
to  monopolize  American  lands,  we  would  not  let  a  foreigner 
command  an  American  vessel,  nor  permit  an  American  vessel 
once  sold  away  ever  again  to  sail  under  the  American  flag. 
Our  ships  are  so  much  holier  than  our  soil.  All  this  is  clue 
to  the  caprices  of  bias ;  neither  common  sense  nor  equity 
is  responsible  for  such  absurdities  in  the  domain  of  legis- 
lation. 

The  late  Secretary  of  the  Interior,  during  the  last  days 
of  his  incumbency,  made  strenuous  efforts  by  an  additional 
force  of  clerks  and  continuing  work  on  Sundaj%  to  make  out 
patents  to  the  New  Orleans  and  Pacific  Railroad  for  lands 
which  had  originally  been  granted  to  the  "  Backbone  "  Road, 
but  never  earned.  Gould  and  Huntington  were  the  beneficiaries 
in  chief;  does  any  one  suppose  that  the  Secretary  would  have 
shown  equal  expedition  in  making  out  patents  to  actual  set- 
tlers, even  if  thejT  had  numbered  thousands  and  their  claim  had 
been  as  good  as  that  which  was  officially  recognized  ?  Would 
he  not  have  been  quite  willing  to  trust  their  claims  to  the  next 
administration  and  to  Congress,  before  which  measures  respect- 
ing this  grant  were  then  pending  ?  lie  was  swift  to  secure  to 
financial  freebooters  their  questionable  claim,  and  the  more 
ready,  perhaps,  because  it  was  questionable,  though  the  act 
involved  detriment  to  actual  settlers.  A  technically  established, 
though  doubtful,  claim  is  recognized,  and  on  this  techni- 
cality honest  settlers  are  deprived  of  their  homes,  when  further 
delay,  giving  more  time  for  a  slow  and  reluctant  Congress  to 
act,  might  have  secured  the  settlers,  if  the  bonanza  had  been 
less  for  corporate  enterprises.  But  the  Secretary  followed  his 
bias,  and  biases  capable  of  results  usually  incline  toward  the 


Sec.  14.~]  BENEFIT  OF  BIAS  FOR  THE  FEW.  31 

greatest  social  force    as  the  plummet   inclines  toward  the 
mountain. 

For  the  last  ten  years  Congress  has  been  wrestling  with  the 
problem  of  railway  regulation.  Perhaps  not  five  per  cent 
of  our  national  legislators  would  dare  to  say  that  there  is  not 
great  need  of  doing  something,  or  that  regulation  is  not  prac- 
ticable. The  opinions  expressed  in  Congress  are  almost 
unanimous  that  there  are  railroad  abuses  which  should  and 
might  be  largely  corrected  b}r  judicious  legislation  ;  and  yet 
Congress  has  worked  at  this  problem  for  ten  years,  and  is  ap- 
parently no  nearer  its  solution  than  it  was  when  it  began. 
There  seems  to  be  an  obscure  and  occult  power  at  work  to 
thwart  the  good  intentions  of  Congress  in  this  field  of  en- 
deavor. You  can  not  see  this  power  any  more  than  you  can 
see  the  wind ;  but  you  can  see  the  wreck  of  Congressmen's 
good  intentions  strown  about.  The  House  passed  an  Inter- 
state Commerce  bill  some  years  ago,  and  last  winter  passed 
another,  and  the  Senate  passed  a  bill.  The  House  and  Senate 
bills  are  thoroughly  at  variance  in  their  methods,  and  the}* 
answered  one  purpose  well,  that  of  not  doing  anything.  The 
discussions  on  the  subject  were  certainty  able,  showing  pene- 
tration and  a  wide  range  of  knowledge  on  the  subject ;  and 
yet  one  of  the  last  things  the  Senate  did  (at  the  short  session) 
was  to  appoint  a  commission  of  five  Senators  to  investigate 
the  railroad  question  and  report  early  at  the  next  regular 
session.  They  apparently  have  so  much  information  on  the 
subject  now,  that  they  do  not  know  what  to  do  with  it,  and 
the  more  they  get,  the  more  undecided  they  may  become,  and 
still  continue  to  waste  the  years  in  fruitless  discussion.  There 
is  sometimes  a  peculiar  interest  fixing  one's  attention  while 
listening  to  the  debates  on  this  and  other  questions  in  the 
Senate.  There  is  impressive  solemnity  in  the  manner  of  Sen- 
ators when  they  refer  to  the  danger  of  infringing  some  consti- 
tutional principle,  or  of  adopting  some  provision  with  a  pos- 
sible incidental  evil  in  its  practical  operation,  just  as  if  it  were 
possible  to  deal  with  a  case  as  complicated  as  this  without  an 


32  CLASS  BIAS.  [.Chap.  II. 

occasional  lapse  which  had  not  been  clearly  foreseen.  One 
would  think,  in  view  of  their  careful  conservatism,  that  a  law 
once  made  could  neither  be  repealed  nor  amended,  and  that  its 
unforeseen  evils  would  have  to  be  borne  forever,  just  as  if  all 
acts  in  new  legislative  fields  are  not  necessarily  tentative. 
But  these  great  legislators  have  not  always  shown  themselves 
so  fearful  of  moving.  Very  promptly,  indeed,  have  they  voted 
away  the  people's  lands,  and  very  reluctant  are  they  to  declare 
forfeitures,  however  manifest  the  delinquency.  These  cautious 
conservatives  will  view  with  absolute  composure  the  exercise 
of  corporate  privileges  to  tax  the  people  in  unjust  ways,  but 
they  are  disturbed  at  the  thought  of  establishing  a  legal  con- 
trol over  such  privileges.  This  is  due  to  a  bias,  and  the  bias 
is  due  to  some  potent  energy,  which  lies  back  of  it.  Under 
this,  as  under  most  powerful  biases,  the  few  dance,  and  the 
many  pay  the  music. 

15.  ARISTOCRACY  IN  THE  SENATE. — If  I  were  alone  in  the 
view  that  there  are  aristocratic  classes  in  society  with  their 
characteristic  and  telling  biases,  I  might  hesitate  to  present  it ; 
but  I  am  not  alone.  Whoever  would  understand  the  working 
of  political  institutions  must  take  account  of  such  biases.  In 
a  defense  of  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  Senate, 
John  Adams  said  :  "  The  rich,  the  well-born,  and  the  able  will 
acquire  an  influence  among  the  people  that  will  soon  be  too 
much  for  simple  honesty  and  plain  sense  in  a  house  of  repre 
sentatives  ;"  and  he  thought  the  chief  of  this  class  should  be 
put  in  the  Senate,  where  they  would  be  able  to  do  less  harm 
than  in  the  House.  And  McMaster,  from  whose  history  I 
quote,  observes,  "The  statement  undoubted!}'  contained  much 
truth."  Whether  this  influence  is  made  less  dangerous  to  the 
general  interests  of  the  people  by  being  put  by  itself  in  the 
Senate,  may  be  a  question.  It  is  to  be  feared  that  it  is  abler 
to  carry  its  aims  there,  than  it  could  possibly  be  in  the  House 
of  Representatives.  Then,  it  must  be  remembered  that  the 
Senate  is  not  a  sufficiently  numerous  body  to  hold  all  of  this 
class  at  the  present  time,  and  that  there  are  always  many  such 


SeC.  16.~]  BIASES  OF  ECONOMICAL  TEACHERS.  33 

in  the  House  who  are  bidding  for  the  favor  of  the  strong  in 
order  to  increase  their  chances  for  membership  in  the  Senate  ; 
and  between  the  two  the  aristocratic  biases  have  things  pretty 
much  their  own  way.  Formerly,  the  U.  S.  Senate  was  regarded 
as  conservative  in  the  best  sense;  now  it  is  coming  to  be 
regarded  more  and  more  as  the  bulwark  of  plutocratic  bias. 
More  and  more  are  very  wealthy  men  or  their  attornej-s  secur- 
ing seats  in  the  Senate,  and  in  some  instances  by  means  that 
are  suspect.  Money  by  its  direct  and  indirect  power  secures 
senatorial  honors  for  its  possessors.  On  the  llth  of  March, 
1885,  I  was  sitting  in  the  Senate  gallery  beside  an  intelligent 
gentleman  from  California,  who  pointed  out  to  me,  the  new 
senator  from  that  State,  Mr.  Leland  Stanford,  and  explained 
that  he  was  the  richest  man  in  the  Senate,  being  worth  about 
forty  millions.  "  I  believe  he  has  had  something  to  do  with 
railroads,"  I  remarked.  "  Oh  yes,"  he  replied,  proceeding  to 
state  the  Senator's  standing  as  a  railroad  magnate.  "  Was  not 
that,"  I  inquired,  "some  objection  to  his  being  sent  to  the 
Senate  ?  or  didn't  that  question  enter  into  the  canvass  ?  "  "It 
was  a  question  in  the  canvass,"  he  replied,  "  and  thoroughly 
considered,  for  California,  you  know,  is  the  greatest  anti- 
monopoly  State  in  the  Union.  The  people  looked  at  the  mat- 
ter in  this  light :  If  we  send  Stanford  and  put  him  on  his 
honor  in  so  doing,  it  will  be  much  better  than  to  send  some 
one  else,  for  whoever  we  send  will  be  Stanford's  man,  and 
will  do  Stanford's  work  more  objectionably  than  he  would 
dare  to  do  it  himself.  Don't  you  see  it  would  be  just  so  ?  "  I 
did  see  ;  and  I  thought  it  very  wise  of  the  people  of  California 
to  behave,  in  this  prudent  way,  like^the  man  that  had  his  head 
in  the  lion's  mouth.  John  Adams  did  see  deeply  into  the 
possibilities  of  the  case. 

16.  BIASES  OF  ECONOMICAL  TEACHERS. — Not  legislators  and 
executive  officers  alone  have  the  aristocratic  bias  ;  the  teachers 
of  political  economy  are  not  wholly  free  from  it.  No  doubt  the 
charge  is  frequently  made  when  not  true,  and  then,  however 
true  it  may  be,  it  does  not  apply  to  all  political  economists. 


34  CLASS  BIAS.  [.Chap.  II. 

There  is  not  perfect  agreement  among  them  by  any  means ; 
and  this  is  not  to  be  expected,  human  nature  being  what  it  is. 
Political  economy  has  to  do  with  questions  in  which  class 
interests  are  diverse,  and  owing  to  the  conflicting  emotions 
which  these  interests  call  up,  and  the  biases  which  they  gen- 
erate, it  is  not  to  be  expected  that  political  economy  will  soon 
be  free  from  the  taint  of  bias.  Doubtless  there  is  great  pro- 
gress to  be  made  in  this  direction.  Prof.  Rogers,  in  his  Six 
Centuries  of  Work  and  Wages,  says  :  "  Writers  have  been 
habituated  to  estimate  wealth  as  a  general  does  military  force, 
and  are  more  concerned  with  its  concentration  than  they  are 
with  the  details  of  its  partition.  It  is  not  surprising  that  this 
should  be  the  case.  Most  writers  on  political  economy  have 
been  persons  in  opulent,  or,  at  least,  in  easy  circumstances. 
They  have  witnessed,  with  profound  or  interested  satisfaction, 
the  growth  of  wealth  in  the  classes  to  which  they  belong,  or 
with  which  they  have  been  familiar  or  intimate.  In  their  eyes 
the  poverty  of  industry  has  been  a  puzzle,  a  nuisance,  a  prob- 
lem, a  social  crime.  They  have  every  sympathy  with  the 
man  who  wins  and  saves,  no  matter  how ;  but  they  are  not 
very  considerate  for  the  man  who  works.  Ricardo,  an  acute 
stockbroker,  went  so  far  as  to  sa}r  that  there  should  be  no  taxa- 
tion of  savings,  so  profound  was  his  interest  in  the  process  of 
accumulation  by  individuals.  It  was  strange  that  he  did  not 
see  that  the  only  fund  which  can  be  taxed,  is  what  the  individ- 
ual may  save." 

J.  R.  McCulloch,  who  wrote  at  greater  length  on  taxation 
than  Ricardo  did,  is  a  still  better  sample  of  the  plutocratic 
bias.  Having  endorsed  Smith's  canons  of  taxation,  and 
declared  that  "  all  the  subjects  of  a  State  should  contribute 
according  to  their  respective  abilities,"  he  then  proceeds  in  an 
elaborate  way  to  show  that  such  principles  have  no  bearing  on 
the  question.  He  condemns  taxes  on  either  income  or  prop- 
erty, and  advocates  the  rating  of  taxes  according  to  consump- 
tion. He  argues  that  a  little  more  cost  on  living  is  a  good 
and  not  a  bad  thing  for  working  people,  as  it  acts  as  a  stimulus 


SeC.  16.]  BIASES  OF  ECONOMICAL  TEACHERS.  35 

to  greater  industry  and  economy.  He  contends  earnestly 
against  making  the  rich  pay  more  than  their  fair  share  of 
taxes ;  and  in  this  he  unconsciously  betrays  his  bias,  for  the 
rich  have  alwaj'S  got  off  with  paying  less  than  their  fair  propor- 
tion. But,  on  the  other  hand,  this  teacher  not  only  advocates 
but  justifies  a  scheme  of  taxation,  which  takes  more  than  their 
proportion  from  those  who  are  not  rich.  While  maintaining 
that  taxes  on  the  poor  stimulates  them  to  greater  exertion,  he 
thinks  it  of  very  little  importance  whether  the  rich  pay  their 
full  share  or  not,  because  what  they  are  thus  enabled  to  save, 
helps  business  and  affords  to  laborers  additional  means  of  con- 
sumption. But  he  regards  it  as  quite  immaterial  whether  even 
this  compensation  accrues  to  the  laborers,  since  the  stingy 
consumption  of  miserly  rich  people  is  likely  to  react  into  prod- 
igal consumption  by  those  who  inherit  their  estates.  McCul- 
loch  is  one  of  the  best  examples  of  that  class  of  writers,  who 
in  their  views  of  wealth,  "  are  more  concerned  with  its  con- 
centration than  they  are  with  the  details  of  its  partition." 
(Sec.  22.) 

A  late  example  in  this  line  has  already  been  referred  to. 
Mr.  Atkinson  brings  to  his  work  so  much  bias  and  passion  as 
to  be  altogether  unconscious  of  the  most  obvious  inconsist- 
encies (Sec.  5).  Our  silver  is  really  dangerous,  and  our  coinage 
of  it  would  be  paralleled  by  buj-ing  two  millions  per  month  of 
wool  to  keep  up  the  wool  industry.  Our  greenbacks  above  the 
gold  in  the  treasury  for  their  redemption,  have  not  the  first 
attribute  of  good  money,  and  yet  bank  issues  are  just  the 
thing,  because  they  expand  and  contract  to  suit  business. 
Bakers  and  butchers  add  more  to  the  cost  of  provisions  than 
railroads  do,  therefore  we  should  first  regulate  bakers  and 
butchers  by  statute  before  we  undertake  to  meddle  with  rail- 
road management.  But  if  we  must  have  railroad  regulation, 
let  it  be  by  a  "board  of  friendly  arbitration,"— a  just  and 
impartial  arbitration  not  being  precisely  what  the  bias  requires, 
or  it  would  have  been  so  "  nominated  in  the  bond." 

Another  example  may  be  given,  and  that  confined  to  a  single 


36  CLASS  BIAS.  [Chap.  II. 

chapter,  and  the  first  one,  in  Prof.  Sumner's  new  book  of 
Collected  Essays.  Those  who  have  read  Prof.  Sumner,  know 
that  he  is  great  on  science,  and  stands  by  the  approved  body 
of  economical  science  to  defend  it  against  all  unscientific 
attacks.  I  will  indicate  in  the  order  they  occur  in  the  essay, 
some  of  the  points,  which  betray  the  author's  prepossessions. 
(1)  The  demonetization  of  silver  in  Germany  was  not  an 
arbitrary  act,  but  its  remonetization  in  the  United  States  was 
an  arbitrary  act.  (2)  In  the  list  of  onsets  to  the  loss  of  cur- 
rency by  the  demonetization  of  silver  in  Germany  and  the 
Scandinavian  States,  he  includes  the  entire  gold  product  since 
1873,  about  $120,000,000  per  annum ;  yet  he  knows  that  a 
very  large  proportion  of  this  gold  has  been  used  up  in  the  arts 
and  manufactures.  (3)  It  is  a  bad  thing  to  transfer  property 
from  one  class  to  another  by  making  money  cheaper ;  but  it  is 
not  a  bad  thing  at  all  to  transfer  it  by  making  money  dearer. 
This  bias  comes  out  in  strong  relief,  and  takes  us  back  to  the 
times  when  the  author  stated  that  it  was  as  a  wage-earner 
(working  on  a  fixed  salary),  that  he  opposed  the  remonetiza- 
tion  of  silver.  (4)  Wherever  the  class  interest  of  creditors  is 
touched,  this  writer  is  effusive  in  his  sympathy  with  them,  and 
in  this  essay  he  repeats  the  marvelous  statement  that  they 
constitute  a  small,  weak,  scattered,  unorganized,  and  unknown 
class  that  never  attracts  attention  (pp.  20,  28,  29,  32).  Only 
think  of  this  !  One  finds  not  the  least  indication  of  sympathy 
with  the  debtor  class ;  but  he  declares  that  bi-metallism  is  a 
project  for  "  uniting  the  debtor  class  of  all  civilized  nations  in 
a  '  corner '  on  the  falling  metal."  (5)  Throughout  his  treat- 
ment of  the  silver  question,  the  increasing  disparity  between 
the  bullion  values  of  gold  and  silver  is  spoken  of  as  due 
solely  to  "  the  fall  of  silver."  This  bias  forbids  the  least  sug- 
gestion of  a  possibility  that  this  disparity  may  be  due  in  part 
to  the  rise  in  gold.  (6)  He  thinks  that  Bismark  was  making 
fun  of  his  American  interviewers  when  he  expressed  the 
opinion  that  German}7  had  erred  in  adopting  gold  monometal- 
lism. Whenever  the  fact  goes  against  this  writer,  he  draws  on 


Sec.  16.~\  BIASES  OP  ECONOMICAL  TEACHERS.  37 

his  imagination  and  falls  back  on  dogmatism,  and  he  commits 
these  offenses  against  the  scientific  method  with  surprising 
naivete". 

While  these  biased  teachings  grow  out  of  controlling  inter- 
ests in  society,  they  in  turn  reenforce  those  interests  by  form- 
ing public  sentiment  and  giving  direction  to  the  law-making 
and  law-executing  powers.  In  this  way  franchises  are  bestow- 
ed, which  operate  as  wealth  accumulators  for  the  persons  who 
have  managed  so  well  as  to  secure  them.  And  then  there  is 
the  power  which  capital  itself  possesses  in  virtue  of  econom- 
ical forces  to  accumulate,  affording  to  its  possessor,  often  a 
mere  child  of  fortune,  a  great  advantage  over  others.  Add  to 
this  the  power  of  combination  which  gets  rid  of  competition, 
and  which  is  becoming  the  rule  in  all  businesses  that  are 
managed  by  comparatively  small  groups  of  persons.  Now, 
when  we  add  to  these  forces  the  bias  of  orthodox  teachings  in 
economics,  we  must  not  be  surprised  if  there  is  injustice  in 
the  distribution  of  wealth.  The  course  of  such  distribution 
rests  on  a  bias  which  regards  it  as  perfectly  correct  and  by  no 
means  to  be  interfered  with.  Men  whose  interests  are  unfavor- 
ably affected  by  the  covert  methods  of  distribution,  are  yet 
loyal  to  the  plutocratic  biases,  because  the}-  have  unconsciously 
imbibed  them  from  certain  powerful  influences  in  societj'.  It 
is  a  phenomenon  of  the  times  that  people  belonging  to  the 
same  set  in  society,  and  having  an  instinct  of  what  their 
immediate  interests  require,  reonforce  one  another  in  the  bias 
of  the  coterie,  till  they  come  to  feel  that  their  view  of  the 
situation  is  necessarily  right,  and  that  whatever  conflicts  with 
it  is  necessarity  wrong  and  altogether  unworthy  of  respect. 
This  powerful  virus  is  not  inert;  others  are  infected  and  it 
spreads.  Take  "American  protection  "  for  an  example.  We 
think  there  are  very  many  intelligent  people  with  hearts  aright, 
who  have  not  reflected  sufficiently  on  the  influences  affecting 
their  own  minds  in  relation  to  class  interests  to  realize  why 
their  sympathies  incline  to  one  view  rather  than  to  another. 
Manly  sympathies  indeed  they  have,  but  these  are  often  mis- 


38  CLASS  BIAS.  \_Chap.  II 

directed  from  perversion  of  judgment  under  the  influence  of 
bias.  And  when  a  prevailing  bias  has  operated  quite  ex- 
clusively on  the  mind,  there  is  no  experience  to  profit  by  con- 
trast and  comparison  in  the  correction  of  Opinion. 

17.  THE  IMPOTENT  BIAS. — I  am  perfectly  aware  that  there 
is  a  bias  among  our  workingmen  which  is  usually  in  conflict 
with  the  bias  of  their  employers,  and  as  crooked  as  any  of  the 
biases.     Thus,  while  some  employers  grow  rabid  at  the  name 
of  a  workingmen's  union,  as  if  Satan  were  in  it,  some  who  are 
in  such  unions  speak  of  the  relations  of  labor  and  capital  with 
a  good  deal  of  misplaced  feeling  and  with  very  little  common 
sense.     I  have  not  aimed  to  bring  into  relief  this  bias  of  the 
masses,  because   it  is   usually  without   result,   having   little 
power  to   get  itself  made   into   law,   or  by  any  established 
means  to  direct  the  forces  of  societ}-.     And  because  it  has  not 
such  power   and  is  withal  crude  in  its  methods,  it  is  quite 
generally  thought  to  be  bad,  while  the  biases  of  the  strong 
pass  current  as  good.     We  have  ver}*  little  of  this  working- 
men's  bias  in  the  departments  of  the  government.     And  while 
the  aristocratic  bias  has  swaj-  so  generall}-,  we  must  expect 
men  to  act  under  it  without  the  least  consciousness  of  bias. 
Hence  the  need  of  doing  something  to  awaken  in  the  popular 
mind  a  clearer  sense  of  this  master  bias  in  favor  of  the  power- 
ful who  are  seeking  and  securing  the  means,  by  franchises  and 
combinations,  of  levying  tribute  on  the  masses,  and  making 
deeper  and  wider  the  inequalities  of  life. 

18.  IMPROVEMENT  IN  BIASES. — Illustrations  of  this  high- 
toned  bias  were  more  extreme  and  striking  in  times  past  than 
they  are  now.     It  carried  things  with  a  higher  hand ;  to-day  it 
is  more  insidious  and  indirect.     In  feudal  times  power  was 
exercised  as  if  all  sensibilities  belonged  to  those  who  had  the 
power  ;  and  in  some  ways  the  lower  classes  passed  for  little 
more  than  beasts  of  the  field.     A  nobleman  having  made  him- 
self weary  in  the  chase  might  place  his  feet  on  the  abdomen  of 
a  prostrate  serf,  who  must  encourage  the  circulation  in  his  mas- 
ter's precious  legs  by  rubbing  them  with  his  hands.     In  times 


Sec.  19.]        THE  EVIL  OP  GENERAL  INDIFFERENCE.  39 

much  nearer  ours,  a  pious  puritan  in  authority  could  arrange  with 
a  slave  importer  for  a  likely  wench;  and  a  devout  Methodist  could 
declare  that  he  never  enjojred  more  of  the  grace  of  God  than 
on  his  last  two  voyages  in  the  slave  trade.  The  bias  that  it  is  our 
own  precious  set  that  has  all  the  sensibilities,  has  full  illustra- 
tion in  histor}'.  De  Tocqueville  observes  that  Madame  de 
S6"  vigne"  "  had  no  clear  notion  of  suffering  in  any  one  who  was 
not  a  person  of  quality."  She  described  the  violent  treatment 
of  the  poor  and  spoke  of  their  sufferings  precisely  as  if  she 
regarded  them  quite  destitute  of  human  sensibilities.  This 
bias  was  prevalent,  and  it  was  in  consequence  of  it  that  when 
a  man  of  rank  died,  it  was  thought  everybody  ought  to  mourn, 
and  that  when  a  poor  peasant  died,  it  was  a  matter  of  no 
moment  to  anybody.  There  is  much  of  all  this  in  our  own 
times,  but  there  has  been  great  improvement,  and  there  is 
room  for  a  great  deal  more. 


CHAPTER  III. . 
TAXATION. 

19.  THE  EVIL  OF  GENERAL  INDIFFERENCE. — The  business 
of  taxation  is  a  very  complicated  one,  and  it  properly  takes 
into  account  a  greater  number  of  considerations  than  are 
apparent  at  a  casual  glance.  Human  nature  has  to  be  dealt  with, 
and  human  nature  is  very  refractory.  Louis  XIV.  thought  the 
best  method  of  taxation  was  that  which  plucked  the  feathers 
with  the  least  remonstrance  from  the  goose.  The  powers  that 
levy  taxes  have  not  always  been  so  honest  as  the  great  king, 
but  pretty  much  all  of  them  have  acted  largely  on  his  maxim. 
"When  the  people  pay  taxes  without  knowing  it,  and  look  upon 
the  exchequer  as  filled  by  a  sort  of  magic,  it  becomes  com- 
paratively easy  to  tax  them  heavily.  This  is  one  of  the  rea- 
sons why  indirect  taxation  is  so  highly  in  favor.  Perhaps 
only  about  one  per  cent  of  taxpayers  in  the  most  intelligent 


40  TAXATION.  lOhap.  III. 

population  on  earth  have  reflected,  when  they  buy  goods,  that 
they  are  paying  taxes  in  their  store  bills.  This  indifference 
leads  to  carelessness  in  two  respects  :  The  taxing  power  need 
not  be  so  particular  about  the  amount  of  taxes  levied,  and 
may  levy  liberally;  they  need  not  be  so  particular  about  the 
fairness  with  which  taxes  fall  on  tho  different  classes  of  society, 
and  consequently  they  are  apt  to  make  the  levy  so  as  to  pro- 
voke the  least  remonstrance  from  the  shrewder  people  who 
have  the  most  property  to  bo  taxed.  The  masses  of  taxpayers 
will  not  make  any  noise,  for  they  are  so  busy  with  their  own 
personal  finances  as  really  not  to  know  how  they  are  taxed. 
There  is  need  for  more  light  among  the  people  on  this  subject. 

20.  THE  DIFFUSION  OF  TAXES. — A  principle  which  serves 
to  cover  up  a  multitude  of  sins  in  taxation  is  that  of  the 
diffusion  of  taxes.  Political  economists  are  divided  on  this 
subject.  Some  speak  of  the  diffusion  or  repercussion  of  taxes, 
as  if  taxation  were  a  simple  mill  which  will  grind  out  just 
such  a  result,  if  you  only  get  it  to  going.  It  has  come  to  be  a 
part  of  this  doctrine,  making  it  exceeding!}'  simple  and  abso- 
lute that  all  taxes  fall  on  consumption.  David  A.  Wells  says : 
"  Proportional  taxes  on  all  things  of  any  given  class  will  be 
diffused  and  equalized  on  all  other  property.  All  taxation 
ultimately  and  necessarily  falls  on  consumption,"  &c.  . 

Now,  if  this  principle  be  absolutely  true  as  stated,  that  all 
taxation  ultimately  and  necessarily  falls  on  consumption,  then 
it  does  not  matter  in  what  way  taxes  are  levied,  for  every 
man,  woman,  and  child  will  pay  the  taxes  according  to  what 
the}'  consume,  and  they  cannot  help  themselves.  Having 
reached  this  acme  of  absolute  economics,  we  may  rest  content 
under  the  fiat  of  an  economical  law  that  cannot  be  set  aside. 
But  this  is  not  in  accordance  with  the  instinct  of  those  who 
actually  pay  their  money  down  for  taxes.  They  have  the  bias 
universally  that  if  they  are  directly  taxed  and  have  to  pay,  the 
burden  rests  with  them,  and  they  are  not  able  to  shift  it  upon 
others.  How  are  taxes  on  land  rent  to  be  shifted  ?  Rent  has 
no  effect  on  the  prices  of  products,  and  a  tax  on  rent  will  not 


THE  DIFFUSION  OF  TAXES.  41 

affect  the  prices  of  products,  wherefore  farmers  who  rent  can- 
not pay  more  for  the  use  of  the  land  than  before  the  tax  was 
levied.  The  tax  comes  out  of  the  landlord,  and  he  cannot 
shift  it.  Ricardo  observes,  and  I  think  justly :  "A  tax  on 
rent  would  affect  rent  only,  and  could  not  be  shifted  to  any 
class  of  consumers."  Not  believing  in  absolute  economics,  we 
admit  that  there  might  be  exceptions  to  this  rule  under  con- 
ditions which  need  not  be  specified,  but  the  rule  it  is  none  the 
less. 

In  like  manner  a  tax  on  land  is  a  tax  on  the  capital  in- 
vested in  land,  and  the  owner  who  manages  his  own  cultiva- 
tion cannot  recoup  himself  by  selling  his  products  at  higher 
prices,  or  by  getting  his  hired  men  to  do  with  less  wages  (Sec. 
3).  Take  the  income  tax.  All  persons  having  large  incomes 
or  fixed  incomes,  oppose  this  tax  under  the  conviction  that  it 
is  paid  by  income  and  not  diffused.  I  can  understand  that  if  a 
moderate  percentage  of  income  were  taken  for  revenue,  the 
payers  thereof  would  reduce  their  personal  expenditure  to  a 
corresponding  degree,  or  else  they  would  have  that  much  less 
for  investment  in  business.  These  alternatives  would  take 
place  according  to  the  tastes  of  taxpa}rers  ;  and  some  would 
have  even  more  than  before  for  business  purposes,  on  Mc- 
Culloch's  principle,  that  it  makes  a  man  more  industrious  and 
economical  to  have  to  pay  a  good  stiff  price  for  commodities. 
Some  would  have  as  much  as  before,  some  less,  for  invest- 
ment, and  if  on  the  whole  there  should  be  less  in  consequence 
of  the  tax,  I  can  see  how  the  laborer  would  so  far  suffer  from 
a  weaker  demand  for  his  services ;  but  in  no  way  could  the 
masses  of  poorer  people  be  made  to  pay  the  tax.  Income 
would  pay  the  tax,  and  very  little  would  ever  return  by  way 
of  repercussion. 

Put  the  case  in  another  form :  Suppose  the  property  of  our 
great  railroads  were  exempt  from  taxation,  would  that  induce 
them  to  carry  goods  for  the  public  that  much  cheaper,  thus 
helping  others  to  pay  their  taxes?  "Would  the  exemption 
of  a  million  dollars  to  railroads  be  transferred  by  any  hook  or 


42  TAXATION.  [Chap.  III. 

crook  to  the  pockets  of  other  taxpayers?  "We  could  not 
count  on  it.  By  various  devices  the  great  railroads  reduce 
competition  between  themselves,  and  if  exempted  from  a  tax 
they  had  been  paying,  they  would  no  doubt  pocket  most  or 
all  of  the  saving  in  the  form  of  increased  profits.  They  took  all 
the  traffic  would  bear  before  exemption;  they  would  take 
precisely  the  same  afterward,  and  no  other  class  in  society 
would  receive  anything  but  the  incidental  advantage  which 
accrues  from  all  great  accumulations. 

Take  another  instance :  that  of  taxing  wages.  Smith  and 
Rlcardo  maintain  that  a  tax  on  wages  will  fall  on  employers, 
and  that,  consequently,  laboring  men  cannot  be  made  to  con- 
tribute to  revenue.  But  this  assumes  that  laborers  require  all 
their  wages  to  live,  and  that  if  they  pay  taxes,  there  must  be 
an  addition  to  their  wages  equal  to  the  taxes.  This,  however, 
is  not  always  the  case,  and  if  laborers  were  taxed,  what  they 
now  pay  into  savings  banks  would  partly  or  wholly  go  into 
the  exchequer,  and  laborers  would  be  that  much  worse  off. 
There  would  be  little  or  no  diffusing.  Are  wages  any  higher 
for  the  excise  on  tobacco  and  liquors  ?  Laboring  men  con- 
sume them  largely ;  are  they  able  to  shift  the  tax  to  their 
employers  or  to  anybody  else?  Wherever  laborers  are  not 
already  down  to  the  living  point  under  the  "  brazen  law,"  they 
pay  the  taxes  that  are  levied  on  them,  and  they  are  still  able 
to  live  and  work.  This  is  true  even  if  the  taxes  be  laid  on  the 
necessaries  of  life.  If  they  barely  lived  before  the  levy,  the 
tax  would  be  shifted  to  the  employers  in  necessarily  increased 
wages  ;  if  they  had  more  than  what  was  merely  necessary  to 
live  on,  the  taxes  would  come  out  of  that  surplus.  Such 
things  are  conditional,  not  absolute.  The  poorer  classes  in 
society  have  the  least  power  to  shift  the  burthen  of  taxation 
to  other  classes.  The  rich  no  doubt  have  this  power  to  a  cer- 
tain extent,  for  the  simple  reason  that  in  all  class  conflicts 
they  are  the  strongest,  and  can  take  advantages  not  within  the 
reach  of  the  poor.  It  is  hardly  possible  for  even  great  cor- 
porations, so  to  avail  themselves  of  the  shifting  process  as  to 


Sec.  20."]  THE  DIFFUSION  OF  TAXES.  43 

make  others  pay  their  taxes,  but  it  is  evident  that  they  have 
more  power  to  do  so  than  business  men  without  combination 
or  privileges.  But  if  great  corporations  were  successful  in  shift- 
ing taxes,  the  case  would  not  illustrate  diffusion  in  the  usual 
sense.  Diffusion  is  the  shifting  of  taxes  by  an  economical  law 
under  free  competition,  whereas  the  corporations  could  reap  the 
benefits  of  diffusion  only  by  getting  rid  of  competition,  so  as 
arbitrarily  to  fix  rates  and  prices. 

Now,  since  organized  capital  which  largely  gets  rid  of  com- 
petition, is  far  more  likely  than  other  agencies  in  society  to 
make  the  general  public  bear  the  burthen  of  its  taxes,  hence 
there  is  need  of  great  care  on  the  part  of  government  to  avoid 
adding  to  the  disadvantages  under  which  the  weaker  already 
labor.  But  in  any  case  the  shifting  of  taxes  requires  an  effort, 
that  effort  meets  with  resistance,  and  requires  time  to  effect  its 
object,  wherefore  the  doctrine  of  diffusion  is  at  fault  in  imply- 
ing a  mobility  of  the  social  forces  acting  under  free  competi- 
tion, which  does  not  exist 

Mr.  Wells  illustrates  in  this  way :  "A  dealer  in  imported 
goods  keeps  on  hand  a  stock  of  accumulated  taxes — imports, 
excises,  State,  city,  and  local  taxes  ;  the  farmer  charges  taxes 
in  the  price  of  his  products  ;  the  laborer  in  his  wages  ;  the 
clergyman  in  his  salary  ;  the  lender  in  the  interest  he  receives  ; 
the  lawj-er  in  his  fees ;  and  the  manufacturer  in  his  goods." 
This  is  true  mainly  as  an  illustration  of  the  fact  that  the 
strong  have  some  power  to  make  other  people  pay  taxes  for 
them.  And  in  this  respect,  however  true  of  the  others  named, 
it  is  not  true  of  the  laborer  and  the  farmer.  As  already  stated, 
it  is  not  true  that  the  laborer  recovers  in  additional  wages  what 
he  pays  out  in  taxes.  It  is  not  true  that  the  farmer  charges  his 
taxes  in  the  price  of  his  wheat.  The  higher  his  taxes,  the 
more  wheat  he  must  sow,  and  the  more  surely  is  he  compelled 
to  sell  it  in  season  to  make  ends  meet.  The  more  the  farmer 
is  taxed,  the  more  the  consumer  is  benefited  by  an  abundance 
of  products,  and  the  greater  slave  the  farmer  is,  and  he  cannot 
help  himself.  His  farm  is  the  home  of  his  family;  it  is  a 


44  TAXATION.  {.Chap.  III. 

fixed  possession,  and  he  must  make  it  pay  as  best  he  can,  and 
this  he  does  not  by  neglect,  but  by  turning  his  acres  to  the 
greatest  possible  advantage.  He  cannot  whisk  round  from  his 
business  to  some  other ;  nor  indeed  can  other  business  men  do 
so  with  the  facility  which  the  theory  assumes.  If  mobility  and 
competition  were  not  impeded  as  they  are,  then,  indeed,  would 
Smith's  view  be  correct,  that  "  no  tax  can  ever  reduce  for  any 
considerable  length  of  time  the  rate  of  profit  in  any  particular 
trade,  which  must  always  keep  its  level  with  other  trades  in 
the  neighborhood."  But  this  is  a  theoretical  view  of  the  case 
— a  specimen  of  absolute  economics,  which,  if  the  neighbor, 
hood  is  somewhat  extensive,  is  never  true  in  practice  (Sec.  2). 

Prof.  F.  A.  Walker  in  his  work  on  Political  Economy  says  : 
"  This  which  may  be  called  the  diffusion  theory  of  taxation, 
rests  upon  the  assumption  of  perfect  competition.  It  is  true  to 
the  full  extent,  only  under  conditions  which  secure  the  com- 
plete mobilitj7  of  all  economical  agents.  As  far  as  any  portion 
of  the  community  are  impeded  in  their  resort  to  the  best 
market  by  ignorance,  poverty,  fear,  superstition,  misappre- 
hension, inertia,  just  so  far  is  it  possible  that  the  burden 
of  taxation  may  rest  where  it  first  falls.  It  requires,  as  Prof. 
Kogers  has  said,  an  effort  on  the  part  of  the  person  who  is 
assessed  to  shift  the  burden  on  to  the  shoulders  of  others.  Not 
only  is  that  effort  made  with  varying  degrees  of  case  or  diffi- 
culty; but  the  resistance  offered  may  be  of  any  degree  of 
effectiveness :  powerful,  intelligent,  tenacious,  or  weak,  igno- 
rant, spasmodic.  The  result  of  the  struggle  thus  provoked  will 
depend  on  the  relative  strength  of  the  two  parties  ;  and  as  the 
two  parties  are  never  precisely  the  same  in  the  case  of  two 
taxes,  or  two  forms  of  the  same  tax,  it  must  make  a  difference 
upon  what  subjects  duties  are  laid,  what  is  the  severity  of  the 
imposition,  and  at  what  stage  of  production  or  exchange  the 
contribution  is  exacted." 

In  the  London  Economist  of  February  21,  1885,  there  is  a 
discussion  between  the  editor  and  Mr.  J.  Chamberlain  on 
the  relative  incidence  of  taxation  on  the  rich  and  poor  in 


Sec.  21. ]  THE  CHIEF  MAXIM  OF  TAXATION.  45 

England,  wherein  both  disputants  take  for  granted  that  taxes 
are  not  shifted  from  one  class  to  another ;  that,  for  example, 
the  income  tax  stays  where  it  is  put,  and  that  the  poor  pay 
the  tax  on  the  articles  they  consume.  Mr.  E.  J.  James  (Art. 
Science  of  Finance  in  Cyclopaedia  of  Political  Science)  thinks 
that  altogether  too  much  has  been  made  of  the  diffusion  theory 
of  taxes.  He  calls  it  an  optimistic  theory  which  assumes  that 
ill-placed  taxes  will  diffuse  justly.  He  admits  the  shifting 
process,  but  says  it  may  aggravate  injustice,  and  cannot  be  de- 
pended on  rightly  to  distribute  the  burden  of  taxation.  He 
says  :  "  In  any  case  it  is  exceedingly  difficult  to  determine 
what  the  effect  of  this  shifting  process  has  been,  and  we  have, 
therefore,  no  security  that  a  harmful  and  unequal  system 
of  taxation  will  distribute  itself  justly  by  any  process  of  shift- 
ing and  re-shifting.  It  is  necessary,  therefore,  to  make  our 
system  of  taxation,  from  the  first,  consistent  with  the  princi- 
ples of  economy  and  justice." 

21.  THE  CHIEF  MAXIM  OF  TAXATION. — If  unjust  or  partial 
taxes  do  not  diffuse  justly  and  equally,  the  proper  levying  of 
taxes  is  not  so  easy  as  some  would  have  us  believe.  What, 
then,  is  the  correct  rule  of  assessment  ?  Adam  Smith  taught 
that  taxes  should  be  paid  according  to  ability  to  pay ;  that  is, 
according  to  the  revenue  enjoyed  under  the  protection  of  the 
State.  Mr.  James  thinks  this  maxim  begs  the  question  and  is 
withal  contradictor}'.  The  shrewdest  minds  had  passed  this 
canon  under  review  for  almost  a  century,  and  found  it,  as  I 
believe  it  to  be,  fairly  consistent.  The  word  "  enjoy  "  is  used 
in  the  sense  of  receive,  as  the  illustration  in  the  next  sentence 
clearly  shows ;  and  as  a  rule  it  is  true  that  citizens  are  able  to 
pay  taxes  according  to  the  income  or  revenue  they  receive. 
To  raise  all  the  public  revenues  from  citizens  according  to 
income,  would,  in  some  instances,  no  doubt,  work  injustice. 
A  man  might  have  most  of  his  property  in  articles  of  luxury 
which  he  enjoys,  having  at  the  same  time  only  a  moderate 
income.  Another,  with  little  capital,  might  have  a  large 
income,  owing  to  high  qualifications  for  some  particular  busi- 


46  TAXATION.  [Chap.  III. 

ness,  in  which  case  his  estate  in  the  earl}'  part  of  his  career 
would  consist  wholly  in  his  business  qualifications.  In  the 
former  instance,  it  would  seem  that  income  is  too  small,  in  the 
latter  too  large,  to  be  used  as  the  measure  of  the  taxes  each 
should  pay.  The  man  of  business  genius,  however,  soon  has 
accumulations  at  command,  and  he  could  hardly  complain  of 
injustice  when  taxes  are  proportional  to  income,  were  it  not 
for  the  precarious  tenure  his  family  holds  in  his  genius  as  a 
business  factor,  the  source  of  income  being  liable  to  be  cut  off 
at  any  time  by  sickness  or  death.  In  the  other  case,  the  tax- 
pa}-cr  has  his  accumulations  already,  and  is  enjoying  them 
under  the  protection  of  the  State.  His  taxes  should  be  pro- 
portioned to  his  resources  of  enjoyment  rather  than  to  income. 
But  these  are  only  exceptions ;  and  no  definite  rule  can  be  laid 
down  that  has  not  its  exceptions. 

Mr.  Wells  regards  Smith's  maxim  as  vague,  as  well  as  con- 
tradictory, and  he  quotes  Montesquieu  as  nearer  the  mark,  who 
sa3'S,  "that  the  public  revenue  ought  not  to  be  measured  by  the 
people's  ability  to  give,  but  by  what  they  ought  to  give."  This 
has  no  reference  to  the  apportioning  of  taxes  among  individual 
citizens.  It  refers  to  the  aggregate  of  taxes  which  the  State 
may  take  from  the  whole  people,  and  it  throws  no  light  what- 
ever on  what  Mr.  Wells  is  discussing.  But  from  another 
writer  is  added,  "  What  they  ought  to  give,  can,  of  course,  be 
only  measured  by  the  benefit  the}'  arc  to  derive  ;  "  reference 
still  being  to  the  aggregate  and  not  to  apportionment.  If 
Smith's  maxim  is  vague,  what  shall  we  call  this  ?  Smith's 
proposition  is  definite ;  it  is  that  benefit  is  in  proportion  to 
income,  and  that,  consequently,  income  measures  the  obligation 
to  pay  taxes.  On  Mr.  Well's  theory,  taxation  should  be 
according  to  the  benefit  derived,  but  there  is  nothing  given, 
definite  or  indefinite,  by  which  to  measure  the  benefit.  Smith's 
rule  has  exceptions  ;  Well's  rule  avoids  exceptions  by  being  so 
vague  as  to  be  without  definite  meaning  for  practical  purposes. 
What  guide  would  such  a  rule  afford  to  legislators  ?  That  the 
public  revenue  ought  to  be  measured  by  what  the  people  ought 


SeC.  ##.]  THE  EASE  OF  COLLECTION.  47 

to  give,  every  law-maker  already  knows.  The  further  qualifi- 
cation that  taxpayers  ought  to  give  according  to  benefits 
received,  still  leaves  the  subject  in  obscurity,  for  the  difficulty 
from  the  first  was  to  measure  the  benefits  in  order  to  know 
how  to  make  assessments.  The  problem  is,  how  shall  benefits 
be  measured  ?  and  once  measured,  how  shall  the  taxes  be 
adjusted  to  them  ?  In  levying  taxes,  we  have  to  be  definite, 
no  matter  what  the  theory;  and  whatever  the  wisdom  and 
honesty  called  into  requisition,  there  will  no  doubt  be,  as 
exceptions,  some  instances  of  injustice  and  hardship.  The 
difficulties  of  taxation  illustrate  the  principle,  elsewhere  insisted 
on,  that  evil  lurks  in  the  wisest  administration  of  affairs.  As 
McCulloch  observes,  "  It  may  be  stated  of  taxes  as  of  poems  : 
'"Whoe'er  expects  a  faultless  tax  to  see, 
Expects  what  neither  is,  nor  was,  nor  e'er  shall  be.'  " 
But  this  affords  no  excuse  for  carelessness  or  dishonesty  in 
framing  tax  laws  ;  it  does  afford,  however,  a  reason  why  this 
subject  should  be  studied  far  more  than  it  is  by  legislators  and 
the  people.  The  very  power  of  taxation  with  its  intricacies  as 
an  economical  force,  proves  it  to  be  a  dangerous  tool  for  the 
ignorant,  careless,  or  unscrupulous  to  handle. 

22.  THE  EASE  OF  COLLECTION. — According  to  another  rule 
for  taxation,  that  tax  is  best  which  is  most  easily  assessed  and 
collected.  This  is  by  no  means  consistent  with  the  first  rule, 
that  the  best  tax  is  that  which  takes  from  each  according  to 
the  revenue  he  enjoys  under  the  protection  of  the  State.  The 
higher  form  of  justice  appears  to  be  that  which  apportions 
the  burdens  of  the  State  (the  cost  of  administering  the  conjoint 
estate)  according  to  the  protection  afforded  to  individuals  in 
their  control  of  property  within  the  State  (that  is,  according  to 
their  respective  interests  in  the  estate);  but  if  this  kind  of  tax 
is  too  difficult  of  assessment  and  collection,  we  have  to  resort 
to  some  other  principle  in  which  the  element  of  justice  is  not 
a  primary  one.  "We  must  yield  to  the  refractor}'  character  of 
human  nature  ;  and  my  thesis  is  sustained  that  it  is  impossi- 
ble to  avoid  all  evil  in  the  administration  of  affairs.  It  would 


48  TAXATION.  [Chap.  III. 

not,  therefore,  be  expected  of  me  to  deny  the  difficulty.  I  fully 
appreciate  it,  but  I  fear  it  has  been  used  somewhat  to  favor 
the  strong  and  oppress  the  weak  in  the  collection  of  public 
revenues.  It  is  not  a  long  step  from  the  maxim  that  the  tax 
most  easily  levied  and  collected  is  the  best,  to  that  which 
assumes  that  the  best  tax  is  the  one  which  meets  with  the  least 
active  resistance  from  taxpajrers.  It  is  to  be  feared  that  this 
modification  of  the  maxim  is  the  form  it  takes  in  practice. 
The  masses  do  not  resist ;  they  submit,  with  a  growl,  perhaps, 
but  an  ineffectual  growl,  which  is  charitably  credited  to  the 
nature  of  the  animal.  The  masses  are  unorganized,  they  can- 
not act  in  concert  by  their  own  direction,  they  cannot  help 
themselves.  It  is  very  different  with  the  wealthy  taxpa3'ers. 
Here  every  individual  is  a  power  of  himself.  Not  only  so,  but 
he  is  on  the  lookout  for  all  possible  advantages,  and  when  the 
taxes  do  not  suit  him,  he  makes  opposition  that  is  felt  by  the 
taxing  power.  When  a  few  such  individuals  combine,  as  they 
are  sure  to  do,  the}'  have  vast  resources  at  command  to  carry 
their  ends.  Their  influence  in  the  caucus,  in  the  convention, 
in  the  party  papers,  on  the  stump,  is  an  influence,  however 
well  the  source  of  it  may  be  hidden,  that  is  not  to  be  trifled 
with.  A  public  sentiment  is  thus  fashioned  which  legislators 
must  not  disregard.  The  tax  that  is  made  difficult  to  assess 
and  collect,  by  strong  opposition  becomes  the  objectionable 
tax,  wherefore  no  careful  statesman  will  insist  on  it,  and  a 
little  more  is  put  upon  the  classes  that  do  not  resist.  Hence, 
we  come,  in  the  end,  to  the  old  king's  theory  that  the  best  sys- 
tem is  that  which  secures  the  largest  quantity  of  feathers,  with 
the  least  remonstrance,  from  the  goose. 

But  this  is  not  justice,  and  we  do  not  like  to  settle  down  in 
the  conviction  that  there  is  nothing  practically  better  than 
this,  and  yet  it  is  to  be  feared  that  even  in  this  enlightened 
day,  as  well  as  in  the  olden  time,  it  largely  determines  the 
methods  of  taxation.  McCulloch,  whose  influence  is  still  felt, 
actually  says  that  "  the  distinguishing  characteristic  of  the  best 
tax,  is  not  that  it  is  most  nearly  proportioned  to  the  means  of 


Sec.  £#.]  THE  EASE  OP  COLLECTION.  49 

individuals,  but  that  it  is  easily  assessed  and  collected,  and  is, 
at  the  same  time,  most  conducive,  all  things  considered,  to  the 
public  interests."  That  is,  the  tax  which  meets  with  least 
resistance  from  the  strong  classes  in  society,  and  is,  therefore, 
most  easily  assessed  and  collected,  is  the  best  tax  ;  and  since 
the  taxing  power  is  subject  to  this  fatal  limitation,  taxes 
should  be  so  assessed  and  collected  as  to  be  as  conducive  as 
possible,  under  said  limitation,  to  the  public  interests.  Under 
the  composition  of  forces  in  society,  this  seems  to  be  the  par- 
ticular direction  which  the  moving  body  has  taken.  But,  with 
more  enlightenment  of  the  great  body  of  the  people  who  are 
taxed,  there  would  be  a  change  in  the  relative  strength  of  the 
influencing  forces,  and  the  moving  body  affected  would  take  a 
different  direction. 

According  to  some  of  our  authoritative  economical  philoso- 
phy, there  is  no  occasion,  either  in  policy  or  justice,  to  attempt 
relief  to  an}r  class  in  society,  however  feeble,  in  distributing 
the  burdens  of  taxation.  McCulloch  argues  that  a  little  addi- 
tional burden  imposed  on  the  masses  of  the  poorer  people 
stimulates  them  to  greater  industry  and  economy;  but  that  an 
additional  burden  imposed  on  the  successful  men  of  business 
is  discouraging,  and  depresses  business.  That  is,  the  fact  of 
additional  burdens  has  precisely  opposite  effects,  according  as 
it  touches  the  rich  or  the  poor,  benefiting  the  poor  and  society, 
but  injuring  the  rich  and  society.  He  then  goes  so  far  as  to 
state,  as  a  theoretical  truth,  that  if  any  are  favored  in  taxation, 
it  should  be  the  enterprising  people  who  are  making  the 
money,  or  whose  progenitors  acquired  wealth,  because  "riches 
are,  in  ninety-nine  out  of  every  hundred  instances,  the  result 
of  superior  industry,  enterprise  and  frugality;  of  the  exercise, 
in  short,  of  the  peculiar  virtues  which  all  wise  governments 
endeavor  to  diffuse  and  encourage."  But  McCulloch's 
great  reason  for  taxing  commodities,  even  necessaries,  thus 
weighting  the  economically  weak  as  heavily  as  the  economi- 
cally strong,  is  that  there  is  really  nothing  else  possible  to  do. 
Any  attempt  to  levy  and  collect  taxes  on  property  or  income 


50  TAXATION.  [Chap.  III. 

must  necessarily  fail,  therefore,  taxes  on  expenditure  are  simply 
inevitable  like  storms  and  earthquakes.  Evils  may,  indeed, 
attend ;  but  that  the  poor  will  have  to  struggle  and  stint  a 
little  more  is  not  one  of  them.  The  great  result  of  such  a 
system  of  taxation  is  that  it  increases  the  aggregate  of  wealth 
by  adding  to  the  accumulations  of  those  who  are  already 
wealthy.  Now,  while  it  is  evident  that  taxes  cannot  be  made 
entirely  equitable,  it  does  not  follow  that  there  is  any  reason 
in  this  for  making  them  about  as  unjust  as  possible.  The  idea 
that  the  rich  man  who  escapes  taxation  may  add  indirectly  by 
his  accumulations  to  the  success  of  industry  and  thereby  con- 
done the  apparent  wrong,  would  justify  all  that  class  of  legis- 
lation which  discriminates  in  favor  of  "  financial  freebooters," 
such  as  some  of  our  suddenly  made  millionaires  are  generally 
held  to  be.  On  such  a  principle  we  might  go  on  and  reestablish 
the  kind  of  taxation  France  had  before  the  Revolution.  It 
would  justify  the  legal  building-up  of  monopolies  at  the  ex- 
pense of  the  great  mass  of  producers  and  consumers.  A  levy 
of  taxes  which  takes  as  great  a  sum  from  a  poor  as  from  a 
rich  family  is  the  extension  of  a  legal  privilege  to  the  rich 
family,  and  helps  to  cast  down  the  poor  still  lower  in  the  social 
scale.  Protest  indeed  against  the  government  meddling  with 
the  "  natural  distribution  of  wealth,"  as  an  answer  to  a  claim 
for  the  needy,  whenever  a  claim  is  made  for  the  needy! 
And  }*et,  some  of  these  very  same  people  who  are  so 
fearful  of  disturbing  the  natural  course  of  things,  approve 
of  laws  which  make  it  more  difficult  for  those  who  have 
not,  to  get,  but  which  help  those  who  already  have,  to  get 
more.  It  is  true  that  our  type  of  this  class  of  economists,  Mc- 
Culloch,  in  speaking  of  taxes  which  bear  heavity  on  the  poor, 
says,  "  they  should  be  resorted  to  with  much  caution,  and  be 
confined  within  reasonable  limits  ";  and  j-et  we  can  hardly  see 
how  the  precaution  is  to  have  any  practical  use,  when  he 
insists  that  taxes  on  commodities  and  necessaries  are  the  best, 
that  a  tax  on  property  is  worse  than  a  tax  on  income,  and  that 
England's  income  tax  should  be  forthwith  repealed,  resting  as 


Sec.  #$.]  OVERTAXING  THE  RICH.  51 

it  does  on  the  "most  unsound  and  dangerous  principles,"  and  its 
existence  being  "  the  greatest  blot  on  our  economical  policy." 

We  find  something  like  this  in  still  later  teachers.  In  treat- 
ing of  the  income  tax,  Mr.  Wells  insists  on  the  injustice  of  any 
exemption  at  all.  He  contends  that  those  at  the  bottom  of  the 
scale  should  scorn  to  accept  of  exemptions,  just  as  if  there 
were  perfect  fairness  of  competition  in  the  prevailing  econom- 
ical conditions,  and  as  if  the  present  distribution  of  wealth 
were  gocl-ordained  and  right-sustained.  What  a  pity  those  at 
the  top  of  the  scale  had  not  such  a  fine  sense  of  honor  as  to 
scorn  profitable  franchises  which  levy  contributions  on  the 
many  for  the  benefit  of  the  few !  But  would  not  an  exemption 
of,  say  $500  out  of  all  incomes,  secure  compensation  to  those 
with  taxable  income,  by  a  sort  of  diffusion  on  Mr.  Wells' 
principles  ?  If  it  helped  a  person  of  small  means  to  rise  above 
the  line  of  exemption,  he  would  then  help  to  pa}-  the  taxes. 
If,  without  exemption,  he  had  been  pressed  below  tne  line 
of  self-support,  the  taxpa}*ers  would  have  to  help  him  live, 
and  would  thus  lose  as  much  as  they  would  gain  by  the  little 
tax  squeezed  out  of  him.  But,  any  way,  it  is  hardly  for  Mr. 
Wells  to  press  such  a  point,  for  if,  as  he  formulates  it  (Sec.  4), 
all  taxes  fall  on  consumption  in  the  end,  why  object  to  the 
exemption  of  the  poor  man's  income,  since  he  would  pay  his 
share  of  taxes  according  to  consumption,  whether  his  paltry 
income  were  taxed  or  not  ? 

23.  OVERTAXING  THE  RICH. — The  solicitude  shown  by  cer- 
tain able  economists  and  influential  politicians  lest  the  rich  be 
taxed  too  much,  takes  it  for  granted  that  the  present  distribu- 
tion of  wealth  involves  some  economical  disability,  active  or 
latent,  of  the  moneyed  classes.  It  regards  large  individual 
possessions  as  falling  below  rather  than  rising  above  what 
they  should  be  under  a  fair  distribution.  It  assumes  that 
great  wealth  is  to  be  found  only  where  it  stands  the  emphatic 
and  unimpeachable  reward  of  honest  business  enterprise.  But 
is  this  so  ?  I  will  say  nothing  of  the  economical  advantage 
which  a  large  capital  necessarily  gives.  I  will  say  nothing 


52  TAXATION.  [Cliap.  111. 

of  the  abuse  of  economical  power  which  this  possession  of 
wealth  puts  into  the  hands  of  unscrupulous  men.  I  have  only 
in  view  the  influence  of  class  legislation  on  the  distribution 
of  wealth.  Since  the  beginning  of  government,  the  laws  have 
been  made  by  the  strong  in  the  interest  of  the  strong.  Thcy 
have  placed  franchises  in  the  hands  of  the  few  and  built  up 
monopolies  whereby  the  inequalties  of  distribution  have  been 
made  greater  than  before.  Tax  laws  have  been  made  to  shield 
the  rich  and  well-born,  while  they  imposed  additional  burdens 
on  the  masses  of  the  unresisting  people.  And  even  when  the 
tax  laws  have  not  been  in  the  most  objectionable  form,  the 
strong  have  been  able,  by  means  of  various  devices  not  within 
the  reach  of  the  commonalty,  to  break  through  the  statutes, 
and  escape  the  paj-mcnt  of  just  taxes.  And  yet  some  of  our 
economists  are  concerned  lest  the  rich  be  taxed  too  much. 
McCulloch  appears  to  have  been  in  mortal  dread  of  such  a 
result.  Mr.  Worthington  C.  Ford,  in  an  article  in  Lalor's 
Cyclopaedia,  after  having  spoken  highly  of  the  income  tax  on 
theoretical  grounds,  goes  on  to  sa}*  that  "  in  a  country  with 
democratic  institutions  there  is  danger  that  the  income  tax, 
when  levied  as  in  England  at  the  present  time,  may  be  used 
"by  the  poorer  classes]as  a  means  of  oppressing  the  richer  classes 
on  whom  the  tax  falls,  and  this  tendency  has  been  noted  in 
England  by  Prof.  Faucett,  and  in  this  [country  by  Mr.  D.  A. 
Wells." 

We  admit  the  strength  of  this  <;  tendency  " — in  theory,  but 
nowhere  else.  It  might  get  into  practice  if  the  masses  did 
their  own  voting,  but  unfortunately  they  are  voted  by  the 
political  bosses.  Possibly  the  bias  of  demagogy  or  that  of 
over-s3Tmpathy  with  the  poor  may  sometimes  go  too  far  in  one 
direction  as  the  aristocratic  bias  goes  in  the  other.  A  tax  or 
the  remission  of  a  tax  which  promises  to  relieve  or  flatter  the 
masses  may  sometimes  be  authorized,  as  when  the  duty  was 
taken  from  tea  and  coffee  in  this  country,  a  measure  which 
served  the  double  purpose  of  pleasing  "  protectionists  "  as  well 
as  housekeepers.  One  of  the  pretexts  for  taxing  foreign  ar- 


SeC.  24.~]      EQUALITY  OF  SACRIFICE  FOR  STATE  SUPPORT.  53 

tides  which  compete  with  our  own  is  that  such  taxes  help 
labor,  and  so  please  the  laboring  people  who  are  usually  too 
ill  informed  to  detect  the  fallacy.  None  the  less  are  protecting 
taxes  monopoly  taxes  adverse  to  the  general  interests.  So  that 
even  when  demagog}*  or  popular  sympathy  attempts  to  benefit 
the  many  by  discrimination  in  taxes,  it  is  pretty  sure  to  fail, 
while  the  opposite  bias  is  very  much  more  likel}-  to  compass 
its  ends.  England  taxes  tea,  coffee,  and  other  commodities  which 
the  people  use ;  but,  on  the  other  hand,  she  taxes  incomes  ; 
for,  though  McCulloch  was  so  fierce  to  have  this  tax  repealed, 
Sir  Robert  Peel  and  others  thought  differently,  and  the  tax 
has  been  retained,  be  it  said  to  the  credit  of  England's  states- 
manship. Prof.  Perry  states  that  "  the  English  have  found 
their  income  tax  to  be  for  more  than  thirty  years  the  most 
uniform,  unfailing,  expansive,  and  responsive  to  control  of  all 
their  fiscal  expedients."  (Political  Economy,  587.)  In  the 
United  States,  commodities  and  manufactured  articles  which 
the  people  use  are  largely  taxed,  and  smaller  properties  are 
frequently  made  to  pay  double  tax  ;  while  we  have  no  income 
tax  at  all,  and  the  opposition  to  it  in  some  quarters  appears  to 
be  almost  malignant.  Certainly,  if  there  is  a  "  tendency"  to 
oppress  the  rich  with  burdens  of  taxation  here  and  in  England, 
it  has  made  little  mark  in  a  practical  way.  It  is  in  all  proba- 
bility true,  however,  that  the  inequalities  of  fortune  assisted  by 
acts  of  government  and  business  combinations  together  with 
the  plutocratic  bias  which  insinuates  itself  into  economical 
teachings  and  molds  public  sentiment,  have  led  to  counter- 
agitation,  and  even  to  the  adoption  of  extreme  views  in  the 
contrary  direction.  Possibly  this  may  threaten  to  "  oppress 
the  rich,"  but  it  has  not  yet  done  so. 

24.  EQUALITY  OF  SACRIFICE  FOR  STATE  SUPPORT. — This 
doctrine  discards  the  idea  that  the  State  does  a  certain  ser- 
vice for  the  citizens  to  which  they  should  respond  according  to 
means  or  benefits.  So  to  respond  would,  in  a  general  way, 
justify  a  simple  income  tax  ;  but  the  advocates  of  equality 
of  sacrifice  for  State  support  go  further  and  demand  a  progres- 


54  TAXATION.  [Chap.  III. 

sive  or  graduated  income  tax.  They  take  the  view  that  the 
burden  of  taxation  is  a  sacrifice  which  it  is  the  duty  of  all  to 
bear  for  the  general  welfare  of  the  whole,  and  that  '•'  equality 
of  taxation  is  to  be  established  by  so  adjusting  the  taxes  that 
they  will  require  an  equal  sacrifice  of  all.  This  is  to  be  ac- 
complished by  a  system  of  progressive  taxation,  i.  e.,  one  in 
which  the  rate  increases  with  the  income.  For  it  is  evident 
that  the  day  laborer  who  barely  earns  enough  to  sustain  his 
family,  we  will  say  $400  a  year,  must  make  a  greater  sacrifice 
to  pay  three  per  cent  tax,  than  a  capitalist  whose  income  is 
$10,000  a  year  ;  i.  e.  that  $12  is  more  for  the  former  than  $800 
for  the  latter."  (E.  J.  James  after  Adolph  Wagner,  Cyclope- 
dia of  Political  Science.) 

This  view  of  taxation  has  the  support  of  thinking  men,  and 
there  is  so  much  in  its  favor  as  a  theory,  that  it  has  made  some 
progress  as  an  element  of  political  agitation.  In  our  own 
country  it  has  made  its  way  into  the  platforms  of  party 
organizations  which  aim  to  promote  the  interests  of  the  many 
against  the  privileges  of  the  few.  That  the  doctrine  is  abhor- 
rent to  the  old  school  and  to  that  popular  sentiment  which 
has  been  engendered  under  the  dictation  of  controlling  inter- 
ests, is  not  surprising.  What  threatens  with  justice,  if  it  be 
only  theoretical  justice,  or  what  threatens  only  a  change,  is 
sometimes  very  repugnant  to  parties  that  may  be  affected 
thereby.  What  unsettles  a  political  habit,  even  in  the  interest 
of  the  right,  may  seem  to  certain  interests  and  biases  as 
really  dangerous.  Let  us  see  what  there  is  in  this  theory  of 
taxation  that  threatens  to  "  oppress  the  rich." 

The  system  may  be  summarized  in  this  way :  Society  is  a 
common  good  to  be  maintained  at  a  certain  expense.  The 
enjoyments  of  individuals  in  the  several  classes  of  society- 
may  not  be  proportional  to  the  property  or  income  of  each 
under  the  protection  of  the  State.  In  some  cases,  at  least,  the 
poor  man,  or  man  of  moderate  wealth,  with  his  family,  may 
enjoy  life  as  thoroughly  as  the  rich  man  with  his  family ;  and 
so  far  as  this  takes  place  under  protection  by  the  State,  it  is 


SeC.  24.1   EQUALITY  OF  SACRIFICE  FOR  STATE  SUPPORT.     55 

hardly  possible  for  the  man  of  moderate  means  to  afford  to  the 
State  a  proper  return  in  money  for  its  services  to  him.  Then, 
it  becomes  necessary  to  find  some  other  theory  of  taxation  for 
the  support  of  the  State.  As  wealth  is  not  the  measure  of 
enjoyment,  and  since  people  in  the  different  strata  of  society 
find  not  very  unequal  measures  of  enjoyment  under  the  pro- 
tection of  the  State,  then  the  theory  assumes  that  all  ought  to 
contribute  to  the  support  of  the  State  in  such  way  that  one 
shall  not  be  made  to  feel  the  burden  of  taxation  more  than 
another.  The  rich  man  would  really  feel  the  burden  less  at  a 
large  percentage  of  his  income  than  the  poor  man  would  feel 
it  at  a  small  percentage  of  his.  The  rich  man  would  have  no 
grounds  for  complaint,  for  while  his  chances  for  the  conditions 
of  a  full,  rounded  life  under  State  protection,  are  even  better 
than  those  of  the  poor  man,  he  makes  no  more  sacrifice  under 
progressive  taxation  for  State  support  than  the  poor  man  does. 
All  this  is  plausible  enough ;  but  on  the  other  hand,  we 
have  to  take  into  account  the  resistance  which  the  rich  would 
be  able  to  make  to  any  such  an  arrangement.  Suppose,  how- 
ever, that  the  resistance  can  be  overcome,  and  the  taxes  prop- 
erly collected,  there  is  still  the  objection  that  the  general 
aggregate  of  savings  would  then  be  less  than  before.  The 
people  who  may  be  relieved  under  this  scheme  of  taxation, 
would  have  more  to  use,  and  they  would  use  more  on  the 
comforts  and  enjoj-ments  of  life.  This  would  be  a  proper 
thing,  if  it  could  be  maintained.  But  could  it  be  maintained  ? 
There  would  be  a  smaller  surplus  for  new  enterprises,  and 
business  would  not  be  so  brisk  ;  there  would  be  a  comparative 
falling  off  in  the  aggregate  of  production,  and  by  and  by  the 
very  people  who  had  profited  at  first  by  the  change,  might  find 
themselves  no  better  off  than  under  the  existing  system.  Tak- 
ing people  as  they  are,  something  like  this  would  probably 
come  about.  It  is  true,  there  might  be  an  unexpected  good  in 
any  arrangement  which  should  give  to  a  large  portion  of  the 
people  greater  power  of  consumption.  We  might  not  then  hear 
of  "  over-production  "  so  often  as  we  now  do.  Production  and 


56  TAXATION.  {.Chap.  III. 

consumption  might  sustain  a  more  uniform  equality  with  each 
other  than  when  the  increase  of  capital  is  so  great,  and  the 
sum  at  command  of  consumers  so  small  as  at  present.  But 
we  fear  that  the  relief  afforded  by  a  S3*stem  of  progressive 
taxation,  admitting  it  to  be  just,  would  have  no  great  results 
in  this  direction,  even  temporarily.  This  brings  us  square  up 
to  the  question.  Would  any  system  establishing  greater  justice 
in  the  administration  of  affairs  and  in  the  distribution  of 
wealth,  afford  any  considerable  permanent  relief  ? 

Since  we  know  so  little  in  complicated  affairs  of  the  neces- 
sary means  to  ends,  we  should  aim  as  a  rule  to  establish  justice 
as  fully  as  possible,  and  let  the  results  take  care  of  themselves. 
One  of  the  first  things  necessary  to  the  elevation  of  the  masses 
is  that  they  shall  feel  a  greater  security  in  life  than  is  their  lot 
now.  To  stint  and  starve  during  seasons  of  business  depres- 
sion, or  even  to  have  to  fall  back  on  the  little  reserves  in  sav- 
ings banks,  is  not  the  kind  of  experience  that  fosters  the  better 
elements  of  human  nature.  Still,  without  some  appreciation 
of  the  more  just  conditions,  there  could  be  little  permanent 
good  in  the  results.  The  beneficiaries  (of  justice  we  are 
speaking)  must  not  devour  and  trample  under  foot  like  cattle 
and  swine.  They  must  understand  something  of  the  principles 
of  thrift,  and  adopt  them  into  their  lives.  The}'  must  save 
for  themselves,  and  help  to  strengthen,  each  in  his  small  wa}r, 
the  reserves  of  capital.  If  the  masses  are  for  the  most  part 
vessels  that  do  not  hold,  and  the  good  things  entrusted  to  them 
fall  through  and  perish,  these  good  things  are  wasted.  "\Vhat 
would  be  the  practical  use  then  of  greater  justice  in  taxation  or 
anything  else  ?  There  would  still  be  the  moral  leaven  of  the 
principle,  and  just  so  far  as  there  is  intelligence  to  profit  by  any 
equitable  readjustment,  that  readjustment  will  prove  to  be  use- 
ful. Then  intelligence  and  the  character  which  is  pretty  sure  to 
rise  with  intelligence  are  the  master  conditions,  without  which 
all  the  schemes  for  the  betterment  of  the  masses  must  fail. 
Socialism,  communism,  nihilism,  progressive  taxation,  the  con- 
fiscation of  rent,  the  tax  proportioned  to  the  death  rate,  and  all 


SeC.  25.]  DIVERSITY  IN  TAXATION.  57 

such  schemes  are  but  dreams,  whatever  else  they  may  be,  just 
so  far  as  they  lose  sight  of  the  need  of  concurrent  education. 
There  must  be  a  cultivation  of  the  taste,  or  the  fruit  that  is 
offered  may  turn  to  bitterness  in  the  eating.  There  is  a  little 
leaven  of  the  needed  culture  already,  but  there  is  urgent  need 
that  this  be  greatly  stimulated  and  extended.  "We  are  not  to 
be  over-sanguine  here  of  great  results ;  but  the  first  thing  to  be 
done  is  to  get  definite  ideas  of  what  the  need  really  is.  Until 
there  is  a  better  general  understanding  of  this  subject,  the 
best  cannot  be  had,  and  we  must  endeavor  to  secure  simply 
the  best  within  reach,  and  this  is  to  be  had,  no  doubt,  by  keep- 
ing near  to  the  beaten  track,  and  making  such  modifications  as 
appear  to  be  safe  and  practicable. 

I  have  made  this  statement  on  taxation,  not  so  much  to  com- 
plain of  inequalities  or  to  suggest  remedies,  as  to  call  atten- 
tion to  the  fundamental  fact,  that  the  bias  which  sustains  pre- 
vailing inequalities  of  taxation,  and  is  the  outgrowth  of  power- 
ful interests,  can  exist  as  a  controlling  agency  in  government, 
only  because  of  the  great  heedlessness  and  indifference  among 
the  people  toward  taxation  in  particular  and  economical  sub- 
jects in  general. 

25.  DIVERSITY  IN  TAXATION. — In  order  to  get  the  last 
word  on  economical  subjects  before  revising  these  pages,  I 
procured  several  works  quite  recently  from  the  press.  One  of 
these  designed  for  grammar  schools  explicitly  teaches  the  dif- 
fusion theory  of  taxes,  apparently  to  deter  workingmen  of  the 
cities  from  voting  too  liberally  for  expenditure.  The  authors 
might  better  have  shown  what  is  nowhere  shown  in  this  ele- 
mentary book,  that  profitless  and  extravagant  expenditure 
actually  in  the  end  detracts  from  the  power  of  giving  employ- 
ment to  labor.  One  of  the  volumes,  a  citizens'  manual,  states 
that  the  best  tax  is  one  that  taxes  land  alone.  Another,  like 
Mr.  Henry  George,  wants  land  to  pay  all  the  taxes.  This  class 
of  writers,  of  course,  assume  the  certainty  of  diffusion,  or  of 
something  equivalent  in  the  interaction  of  the  economical 
forces,  unless,  indeed,  they  are  willing  to  help  on  the  extinc- 


68  TAXATION.  [Chap.  III. 

lion  of  the  middle  class  of  yeomen.  Another  writer  follows 
Mr.  George  iu  general  views,  but  he  has  a  different  panacea — 
a  tax  of  two  per  cent  per  annum  on  all  assets.  One  of  our 
authors  affirms  with  oracular  confidence  that  it  is  discouraging 
to  tax  accumulations,  but  he  is  equally  confident  that  such  a 
tax  (on  assets)  is  just  what  is  wanted  to  secure  justice  and 
make  business  prosperous.  It  is  so  easy  to  see  what  one 
wants  to  see ;  and  then  when  the  doctors  so  confidently  con- 
tradict one  another,  we  must  be  allowed  a  margin  of  scepti- 
cism, when  they  enter  the  field  of  prophecy  and  tell  us  what 
wonderful  things  will  happen  on  the  adoption  of  this  plan  or 
that.  Those  radical  reformers  who  want  a  great  revenue  to 
expend  for  the  good  of  the  people,  wholly  ignore  the  conserv- 
ative view  that  a  great  revenue  is  dangerous,  and  that  when 
the  expenditure  of  the  surplus  is  going  on,  human  nature  is 
such  that  multiplied  abuses  creep  in  to  debauch  government 
and  people.  There  is  so  much  reason  for  this  view  of  the 
case,  we  have  a  right  to  expect  some  effort  to  be  made  to  set 
it  aside.  This  is  especially  incumbent  on  the  author  of  Man's 
Birthright,  since  the  difficulty  affects  the  very  heart  of  his 
scheme. 

Owing  to  the  refractory  elements  in  the  problem  of  taxation 
and  to  the  unequal  intelligence  and  power  of  different  classes 
in  society,  no  simple  form  of  taxation  would  have  equitable 
results.  To  raise  all  revenue  b}*  taxes  on  income,  on  consump- 
tion, on  property,  or  on  land  alone,  might  not  have  so  good  a 
result  as  taxation  on  all  of  them.  I  am  aware  how  bungling 
and  crude  this  view  must  seem  to  those  who  have  perfect 
S3Tstems  to  recommend.  There  is  no  good  reason  why  income 
should  not  be  taxed  at  all ;  the  practical  difficulties  usually 
urged  being  that  the  rich  would  resist,  and  that  gentlemanly 
scoundrels  would  evade  such  a  tax.  Without  care  it  might 
also  duplicate,  and  in  cases  in  which  the  wealthy  man's  property 
consists  largely  of  articles  of  luxury  which  he  enjoys,  he 
would  escape  his  proper  share  of  taxes,  unless  some  other 
element  than  income  were  included  in  the  levy.  Any  exemp- 


SeC.  25.~\  DIVERSITY  IN  TAXATION.  59 

tion  made  should  be  taken  from  all  incomes.  In  the  taxation 
of  property,  duplication  should  be  avoided.  The  present 
method  of  taxing  an  article  of  property,  and  then  the  notes  for 
which  it  is  mortgaged,  is  crude  and  often  cruelly  unjust.  The 
man  who  aspires  to  provide  a  home  for  himself  and  family  on 
the  soil,  and  goes  in  debt  for  a  part  of  it,  ought  surely  to 
have  exemption  on  his  indebtedness.  To  tax  him  on  what  he 
owes  is  one  of  the  worst  forms  of  tax  on  enterprise,  and  every 
season  of  "  hard  times  "  thousands  of  such  lose  their  homes  by 
foreclosure.  Unfortunately  this  kind  of  enterprise  is  not  that 
kind  which  is  most  favored  by  the  taxing  powers.  It  is  the 
grasping,  greedy  enterprise  that  gets  the  admiration  and  sym- 
pathy that  tell  in  the  shape  of  exemptions.  The  poor  man 
may  be  taxed  on  land  he  owes  for ;  but  the  rich  man  who  is 
transforming  independent  ownership  into  subservient  tenancy 
is  not  subjected  to  this  injustice.  He  may  give  the  necessary 
attention  to  assessment,  and  manipulate  for  under-valuation. 
Instead  of  this,  however,  he  should  be  made  to  pay  a  progres- 
sive tax  on  all  his  lands  above  a  homestead,  as  a  most  just 
measure  for  the  protection  of  society  against  the  threatening 
growth  of  landlordism.  And  justice  commands  that  the 
transfer  of  large  estates  to  heirs  should  be  taxed. 

A  tax  on  raw  products  and  then  another  tax  on  the  articles 
made  of  them,  to  increase  the  prices  of  home  productions,  are 
double  and  contradictory  taxes,  intended  mainly  to  benefit 
certain  classes  at  the  common  expense.  They  are  essentiallj-  a 
product  of  class  legislation,  and,  but  for  a  wide-spread  delusion 
that  has  been  fostered  by  special  interests,  such  taxes  would 
not  long  be  endured.  The  taxing  of  luxuries,  such  as  tobacco, 
liquors,  and  tinsels  of  vanity,  is  no  doubt  proper  economically 
and  ethically.  In  taxing  expenditure,  one  would  suppose  that 
a  discrimination  should  be  made  in  favor  of  the  necessaries  of 
life.  Luxurious  consumption  can  afford  to  pay  rather  than 
necessary  consumption.  In  all  cases  moderate  taxation  is 
more  available  than  excessive  taxation.  If  the  poor  are  over- 
taxed, the  source  of  the  fund  is  dried  up ;  if  the  rich  are 


60  MONET.  [Chap.  IV. 

over-taxed,  they  leave  nothing  undone  to  elude  its  payment. 
Hence,  taxes  on  income,  on  luxuries,  on  whatever  is  taxed, 
should  be  moderate  ;  and  diversity  in  taxation  makes  modera- 
tion possible. 

I  am  perfectly  conscious  of  the  feeling  with  which  the  dif- 
fusion theorists  would  regard  most  I  have  said  on  the  sub- 
ject of  taxation.  But  while  believing  that,  under  some  cir- 
cumstances, taxes  may  be  shifted,  I  greatly  prefer,  as  a  guide, 
the  instincts  of  long-headed,  practical  men  to  the  absolute 
economics  of  doctrinaires. 


CHAPTER  IV. 
MONEY. 

26.  PRESENT  AND  ULTIMATE  RESULTS. — Wrong  taxation  is 
sufficiently  insidious  in  its  action  to  effect  an  unjust  distribu- 
tion of  wealth  ;  even  more  insidious  to  the  same  end  are  the 
manipulations  of  money  in  the  interest  of  powerful  classes. 
Here,  as  elsewhere,  class  interests  appear ;  and  here,  as  else- 
where, the  battle  is  usually  to  the  strong.  Former!}*,  it  was 
governments  that  manipulated  the  currency  to  get  a  financial 
advantage  in  no  way  so  easily  obtained  as  by  indirection.  The 
currency  manipulators  in  the  interest  of  class  have  still  largely 
to  depend  on  the  government  for  privileges  and  protection. 

There  is  almost  alwaj-s  a  great  difference  between  an  im- 
mediate and  a  remote  interest.  An  immediate  good  may  turn 
out  to  be  a  remote  evil ;  an  apparent  immediate  evil  may  be 
necessary  to  a  remote  and  general  good.  Without  the  restraint 
of  impulses,  which  is  often  attended  with  temporary  pain,  far 
greater  pain  would  ensue.  For  want  of  making  the  distinc- 
tion between  an  immediate,  temporary,  and  class  advantage, 
on  the  one  hand,  and  a  more  remote,  permanent,  and  general 


SeC.  26.]  PRESENT  AND  ULTIMATE  RESULTS.  61 

advantage,  on  the  other,  there  is  a  great  deal  of  mental  con- 
fusion on  social  and  economical  subjects.  It  is  the  interest 
of  society  that  money  shall  be  as  nearly  as  possible  unchange- 
able in  value ;  but  it  is  the  immediate  interest  of  creditors 
that  money  shall  increase  in  value,  and  the  like  interest 
of  debtors  that  it  should  decrease  in  value.  Do  not  tell  me 
that  mankind  are  above  the  influence  of  such  interests  !  On 
the  contrary,  these  are  the  very  interests  that  usually  govern  the 
actions  of  men,  when  unrestrained  by  a  superior  force.  What 
can  a  man  do  with  more  than  a  million  dollars  to  make  him- 
self and  family  happy  and  comfortable  in  life  ?  It  is  the  real 
interest  of  himself  and  family  that  his  possessions  shall  not 
rise  above  a  million  (the  reader  will  see  that  we  are  liberal) ; 
and  yet,  when  he  gets  a  million,  he  becomes  far  more  desperate 
to  accumulate  more  than  when  he  had  only  a  hundred  thousand. 
It  becomes  now  the  exercise  of  a  tremendous  power,  the 
pleasure  of  which  he  will  not  forego.  He  can  adopt  no  surer 
way  of  destroying  his  famity-  in  the  end  than  by  piling  up 
millions ;  but  it  is  his  immediate  and  personal  interest,  as  he 
feels  and  sees,  to  get  as  much  as  he  can,  and  cling  as  tena- 
ciously as  possible  to  all  he  gets.  The  more  he  leaves  behind, 
the  worse  and  surer  the  luxurious  debauch  of  his  children ;  but 
he  wants  the  name  and  consequence  of  great  wealth,  and  what 
cares  he  for  the  third  or  fourth  generation  of  vanity-puffed, 
pleasure-exhausted  descendants  who  shall  degenerate  into 
mental  and  physical  sterility,  and  in  whose  early  death  his 
very  name  will  be  blotted  out  from  among  the  living  ! 

Combinations  of  men,  as  well  as  individuals,  are  liable  to 
pursue  immediate  interests,  regardless  of  remote  consequences. 
Our  ancestors  did  this  when  they  brought  slaves  from  Africa. 
They  deemed  it  a  present  boon  to  secure  laborers  in  this  wa}-; 
but  slavery  reacted  upon  the  masters  in  many  ways  for  evil, 
and  accumulated  a  mass  of  political  discords  which  could  only 
be  quelled  in  suffering  and  blood.  It  may  seem  very  fine 
now  to  allow  home  and  foreign  S3*ndicates  to  get  possession 
of  immense  tracts  of  American  lands,  but  this  mistaken  policy 


62  MONEY.  [Chap.  IV. 

will  eventually  react  against  the  highest  interests  of  the  people 
to  their  sorrow.  What  may  seem  to  be  a  present  good  may 
turn  out  to  be  a  future  curse,  whether  individuals,  combinations 
of  individuals,  or  nations  be  the  wrong-doers.  I  do  not  believe 
that  it  is  to  the  permanent  and  general  interests  of  any  nation 
or  section,  to  force  the  business  of  the  civilized  world  down 
to  monometallism  on  a  diminishing  aggregate  of  gold,  but  the 
London  Economist  is  quoted  as  saying  :  "  Nearty  every  nation 
on  the  face  of  the  earth  is  indebted  to  us,  and  the  result 
of  an  appreciation  of  gold  is  that  we  obtain  a  larger  quantity 
of  their  commodities  in  settlement  of  our  claims."  A  former 
governor  of  the  Bank  of  England  thinks  it  is  not  to  be  ex- 
pected that  England  as  a  creditor  nation  will  throw  away  the 
advantage  of  measuring  values  by  a  metal  that  is  constantly 
growing  scarcer  and  dearer.  That  the  ruling  classes  in  Eng- 
land arc  not  above  selfish  considerations  of  this  character  is 
shown  by  the  persistence  of  their  opposition  to  international 
bi-metallism. 

There  is  no  selfish  conflict  of  interests  in  regard  to  ultimate 
and  permanent  results ;  it  is  in  the  exclusive  and  present 
interests  of  classes  that  there  is  conflict  everywhere. 

27.  INFLUENCE  OP  CHANGEABLE  VALUES  IN  MONET. — This 
conflict  of  interests  in  regard  to  money  involves  a  number 
of  considerations  which  it  is  worth  our  while  to  pass  briefly 
under  review.  The  most  important  of  these  considerations  has 
reference  to  the  value  of  money.  It  matters  little,  however, 
what  may  be  the  absolute  quantity  or  absolute  value  of  money, 
but  it  does  matter  a  great  deal  whether  that  value  shall  be 
constant  or  fluctuating.  Honesty  requires  that  it  shall  be  as 
constant  as  possible  ;  dishonesty  requires  that  it  shall  change. 
Financial  sharpers  find  their  account  in  the  fluctuation  of  the 
standard  which  determines  business  values.  Creditors  are 
made  richer  without  wisdom  or  effort  on  their  part  by  the 
constant  appreciation  in  the  value  of  money;  debtors  have 
the  like  advantage  from  the  depreciation  of  the  money  unit. 
The  process  of  appreciation  or  depreciation  is  an  insidious 


Sec.  #?.]      INFLUENCE  OP  CHANGEABLE  VALUES  IN  MONET.       63 

element  in  business,  which  affects  an  unjust  redistribution 
of  wealth  by  stealing  from  one  class  and  giving  to  another. 

Such  considerations  bear  on  the  issue  between  monomet- 
allism and  bi-metallism.  If  the  change  which  is  going  on 
from  bi-metallism  to  monometallism  is  giving  greater  value  to 
money,  why  then,  it  is  taking  spoil  from  debtors  and  putting 
it  into  the  possession  of  creditors.  If  the  continued  use 
of  both  gold  and  silver  as  money  should  make  money  cheaper, 
then  would  the  advantage  be  on  the  side  of  debtors.  Owing  to 
the  great  productiveness  of  gold  and  silver  mines  some  years 
ago,  the  value  of  these  metals  declined,  and  this  suggested  to 
the  mone3T-owing  classes  that  their  interests  required  that  one 
of  the  metals  should  be  discarded  for  money  purposes.  Then 
began  a  movement  which  has  achieved  a  good  deal  in  this 
direction,  and  which,  though  conditions  have  greatly  changed, 
is  still  pushed  with  desperate  determination. 

But  the  aggregate  sum  of  the  mone}'  metals  is  not  the  only 
element  that  determines  their  value.  Not  alone  did  the  pro- 
ductiveness of  the  mines  lead  to  the  cheapening  of  money; 
a  movement  which  contributed  to  the  same  result,  was  the 
constantly  increasing  devices  of  credit.  These  enabled  men 
to  dispense  with  certain  uses  of  mone}',  thereby  rendering  it 
of  less  value  than  it  would  otherwise  have  been.  Increasing 
facilities  for  transit,  and  the  more  rapid  circulation  of  money, 
have  had  the  same  effect  as  an  increase  in  the  quantity  of 
money.  For  these  reasons  a  highly  civilized  community 
requires  less  money  in  proportion  to  its  business  transactions 
than  does  a  less  civilized  country.  But  as  an  offset  to  the 
increasing  devices  of  credit  and  rapidity  of  circulation  under 
high  civilization,  there  is  a  constant  increase  in  the  number 
and  volume  of  business  transactions,  owing  to  the  increase  of 
population  and  a  corresponding  increase  in  consumption.  If 
the  devices  of  credit  reduce  the  demand  for  money,  the  greater 
diversity  and  amount  of  business  increase  the  demand.  We 
cannot,  of  course,  definitely  weigh  one  of  these  terms  against 
the  other  to  ascertain  which  is  the  greater  factor  in  the  prob- 


64  MONET.  [Chap.  IV. 

lem ;  and  if  we  could,  there  would  be  constant  disturbance  in 
the  result,  owing  to  the  fact  that,  while  the  devices  of  credit 
admit  of  perhaps  little  further  improvement,  the  increase  of 
business  is  still  rapidly  going  on.  In  view  of  these  considera- 
tions, it  is  probable  that  as  much  money — if  not  more — is  now 
required  for  business  transactions  as  ever  before.  If  this  be 
so,  then  the  success  of  the  monometallic  movement  would  rob 
certain  classes  in  community  for  the  benefit  of  other  classes. 
Monometallism,  in  discarding  one  of  the  metals  except  as  sub- 
sidiary coin,  is  steadily  increasing  the  value  of  money  to  the 
advantage  of  credit-and-money -owners,  and  to  the  disadvantage 
of  others.  The  mines  are  adding  nothing  at  present  to  the 
stock  of  gold  for  money  purposes.  Its  consumption,  as  well 
as  that  of  silver,  in  the  arts  and  manufactures,  is  very  great 
and  rapidly  increasing.  It  is  now  three  times  as  great  as  it 
was  twenty  years  ago,  four  times  as  great  as  it  was  thirty 
years  ago.  On  the  other  hand,  the  production  of  gold  is 
steadily  falling  off.  From  1856  to  1860,  the  annual  production 
of  gold  was  137  millions;  in  1879,  107  millions;  in  1883,  94 
millions.  It  is  estimated  that  the  annual  consumption  of  gold 
in  the  arts  has  already  caught  up  with  the  annual  production. 
While  the  annual  production  of  the  mines  is  steadily  falling  off, 
the  annual  consumption  in  the  arts  is  steadily  increasing ;  so 
it  is  to  be  expected  that  in  a  short  time,  taking  the  last  twenty 
years  as  our  guide,  the  consumption  of  gold  will  be  greater 
every  year  than  its  production.  This,  together  with  the  wear 
and  loss  of  coin,  will  draw  upon  the  present  stock  of  monej*- 
gold,  and  draw  upon  it  largely;  and  yet,  in  the  face  of  these 
facts,  known  to  all  who  have  given  the  subject  study,  we  have 
classes  in  community  who  want  gold  alone  to  be  the  measure 
or  denominator  of  values. 

If  this  movement  were  to  be  carried  out,  how  would  it  oper- 
ate on  the  interests  of  the  various  classes  in  society  ?  In  the 
first  place,  it  would  increase  the  relative  wealth  of  certain 
classes,  and  diminish  the  relative  wealth  of  other  classes,  with 
no  corresponding  merit  in  the  one  class,  or  demerit  in  the 


SeC.  27.]      INFLUENCE  OF  CHANGEABLE  VALUES  IN  MONEY.       65 

other.  All  whose  property  consists  in  credits  and  moneys,  all 
whose  incomes  are  fixed  annuities  and  government  salaries, 
and  salaries  not  readily  adjusted  to  the  changed  conditions, — 
all  these  would  gain  directly  by  the  general  adoption  of  gold 
monometallism.  What  they  gain  others  would  lose.  All 
prices  would  fall,  all  property  would  be  bought  and  sold  at 
lower  figures ;  and  all  who  own  such  property,  all  producers, 
would  have  to  do  with  less  than  before.  All  indebtedness 
would  be  increased.  Enterprising  business  men  who  had 
borrowed  a  part  of  the  capital  they  used,  would  be  crippled. 
The  farmer  still  having  payments  to  make  on  his  home,  would 
be  weighted.  The  same  number  of  dollars  having  in  all  cases 
to  be  paid,  and  those  dollars  having  increased  in  value,  the 
debtor  would  have  to  pay  more ;  and  the  creditor  would 
receive  more  value  than  he  loaned  or  sold.  And  yet  we  have 
classes  in  society  that  are  laboring  in  season  and  out  of  season 
to  establish  monometallism. 

But  this  form  of  the  insidious  and  unjust  redistribution  of 
wealth  is  not  all  we  have  to  look  out  for.  Our  monometallists 
are  quite  concerned  for  the  poor  laboring  men.  They  say,  if 
we  get  too  much  silver  —  and  we  are  always  right  on  the  eve 
of  getting  too  much — prices  will  go  up,  and  wages  will  not  buy 
as  much,  greatly  to  the  disadvantage  of  laborers.  Usualty, 
however,  pretty  soon  after  prices  go  up,  wages  rise,  and  laborers 
are  quite  sure  to  have  all  the  work  they  can  do.  A  good  deal  of 
unnecessary  alarm  is  shown  about  the  high  prices  work-people 
may  have  to  pay.  One  would  suppose  that  a  little  of  this 
alarm  might  be  reserved  for  the  contingency  of  loss  of  employ- 
ment and  lower  wages  under  the  crushing  operation  of  con- 
stant^ increasing  scarcity  and  dearness  of  the  gold  dollar. 
But  this  is  precisely  the  side  of  the  shield  that  our  Argus-eyed 
monometallists  never  see. 

Under  advancing  monometallism,  if  the  movement  cannot  be 
arrested,  money  must  become  constantly  dearer  and  prices  con- 
stantly lower ;— with  what  results  ?  With  a  steady  discourage- 
ment to  business.  When  prices  are  falling,  business  is  always 


66  MONEY.  \Chap.  IV. 

dull.  Bayers  hold  off,  and  the  competition  of  unsuccessful 
sellers  sinks  prices  even  lower  than  would  be  indicated  by  the 
reduced  volume  of  money.  As  purchases  made  on  falling 
prices  are  always  small  and  consumption  economical,  production 
has  necessarily  to  be  limited,  and  there  is  a  constantly  diminish- 
ing demand  for  labor.  Workingmen  are  thrown  out  of  employ- 
ment, or  have  to  work  on  reduced  time  or  reduced  wages,  so 
that,  even  on  falling'prices,  laborers  are  worse  off  than  they  were 
before.  Under  progressive  gold  monometallism,  with  the  les- 
sening supply  of  gold  all  consumed  in  the  arts,  with  the  wastage 
and  loss  in  coin  going  steadily  on,  and  the  stock  on  hand  abso- 
lutely diminishing,  this  depression  of  business  is  not  merely  a 
temporary  thing  ;  it  must  continue  from  j-ear  to  year  with  the 
effect  of  casting  down  the  great  middle  class  relatively  lower 
and  lower,  and  sinking  employe's  to  the  borders  of  beggary 
and  slavery.  Monometallists  never  discuss  these  permanent 
features  of  their  system  ;  they  merely  refer  in  a  partial  way  to 
what  can  only  be  immediate  and  temporary  results,  relying, 
like  advocates,  on  the  safe  mental  inertia  of  those  they  mean 
to  influence.  I  do  not  believe  that  monometallism  in  its 
ultimate  and  permanent  effects  would  really  benefit  even  the 
classes  that  are  pushing  it  with  such  zeal.  I  do  not  believe 
that  it  is  the  interest  of  any  class,  however  exalted  in  wealth, 
that  the  society  of  which  they  necessarily  form  a  part,  shall 
consist  mainly  of  millions  who  are  struggling  for  a  bare  living. 
I  do  not  believe  it  is  the  interest  of  the  "  higher  classes  "  that 
there  shall  be  a  great  unoccupied  gap  between  them  and  the 
"lower  classes."  I  fear  the  increasing  dearness  of  the  gold 
dollar,  because  one  of  its  obvious  effects  as  a  practical  meas- 
ure, is  to  hasten  the  tendencies  of  all  high  civilizations  to 
multiply  the  needy  classes  at  the  expense  of  the  great  middle 
classes,  and,  so  far  as  this  goes,  to  deprive  society  of  its  best 
and  steadiest  elements. 

Over  against  the  extreme  of  contractionists,  there  is  the 
other  extreme  of  expansionists.  These  maintain  that  the 
more  money  a  nation  has,  the  more  prosperous  it  will  be.  This 


Sec.  27.]      INFLUENCE  OP  CHANGEABLE  VALUES  IN  MONEY.        67 

is  an  error.  It  is  not  the  quantity  of  money  to  do  business  j 
with  that  makes  business  prosperous  or  otherwise.  The  world  / 
could  do  business  on  one-tenth  of  the  money  it  has  ;  if  it  had 
ten  times  as  much  as  it  has,  business  facilities  would  be  no 
better  than  they  now  are.  It  is  not  the  absolute  value  of 
money  that  tells  on  business  ;  it  is  changing  to  a  less  quantity 
or  to  a  greater  that  depresses  or  stimulates  business.  A  great 
contraction  of  the  currency  with  a  corresponding  fall  in  prices 
depresses  business  greatly  ;  a  slight  contraction  long-continued 
acts  as  a  chronic  agency  of  depression,  and  tells  most  heavily 
on  the  weakest  members  of  societ}',  preventing  improvement 
in  their  condition,  or  making  it  even  worse.  On  the  other 
hand,  a  sudden  expansion  or  depreciation  which  sends  up 
prices,  stimulates  speculation.  A  slight  increase  of  money 
long-continued  has  a  moderately  stimulating  effect  on  business. 
Of  course,  these  currency  changes  never  act  alone,  but  always 
with  other  factors  which  may  act  either  with  them  or  against 
them.  The  influences  affecting  business  are  very  complicated, 
being  largely  psychological ;  and,  no  doubt,  whether  money 
become  steadily  dearer  or  cheaper,  we  shall  continue  to  have 
fluctuations  in  business,  contraction,  however,  making  them 
worse  and  more  frequent.  Nevertheless,  the  effects  of  con- 
tinuous contraction  or  expansion  (appreciation  or  depreciation) 
are  essentially  as  here  stated. 

If  there  is  any  change  in  the  volume  of  the  world's  money 
in  relation  to  business,  a  slight  increase  seems  to  be  the  most 
desirable.  It  is  true  that  it  favors  debtors  and  borrowers  ;  but 
borrowers,  as  some  economists  have  noted,  are  usually  enter- 
prising people  who  do  most  for  the  expansion  and  diversifica- 
tion of  civilized  industries,  or  who  have  taken  some  risk  to 
establish  homes  for  themselves  and  families,  and,  if  any  should 
be  favored,  it  would  seem  to  be  such.  But  perhaps  the  best 
condition  is  that  of  uniformity ;  that  is,  an  increase  of  money 
keeping  even  pace  with  the  need  for  money  in  the  transactions 
of  business.  While  such  uniformity  cannot  be  maintained  in 
a  matter  so  far  beyond  definite  control,  it  does  not  therefore 


68  MONEY.  [Chap.  IV. 

follow  that  it  should  not  be  kept  in  view  as  a  condition  to  be 
approximated  as  nearly  as  possible.  This  is  one  of  the  duties 
of  government,  and  one  which  it  should  never  delegate  to  a 
selfish  and  irresponsible  class.  When  Mr.  J.  Barr  Robertson, 
a  correspondent  of  the  London  Economist,  replying  to  its 
editor,  called  attention  to  the  evidence  that  within  the  last 
seven  years,  gold  had  increased  in  purchasing  power  while 
silver  had  not  depreciated  in  such  power  within  that  time,  the 
editor  of  the  Economist  coolly  answered  that  it  is  not  a  func- 
tion of  government  to  maintain  uniformity  in  the  standard 
that  measures  prices,  but  only  to  guarantee  the  weight  and 
fineness  of  its  coinage.  This  was  dodging  the  issue — he  was 
bound  not  to  look  at  the  other  side  of  the  shield.  Govern- 
ments have  the  regulation  of  the  currencj',  and  England  has 
helped  make  money  dearer  by  discarding  silver  and  selfishly 
refusing  to  take  a  single  step  toward  its  remonetization. 

28.  THE  HONEST  DOLLAR. — We  have  heard  a  great  deal 
about  "honest  money,"  an  "honest  dollar,"  from  those  who 
want  dear  money  and  the  privilege  of  issuing  bank  paper. 
They  always  assume  that  the  gold  dollar  is  the  honest  dollar, 
and  if  any  other  dollar  passes  for  less,  or  has  less  bullion 
value  in  it,  it  is  the  "  dishonest  dollar."  The  question  is  never 
entertainted  whether  the  dear  dollar  has  gained  in  value  ;  it  is 
always  assumed  that  the  cheaper  dollar  has  lost  in  value. 
Some  professed  bi-metallists,  like  Senator  Sherman,  for  ex- 
ample, continually  harp  on  the  "  fall  of  silver."  Some  who  are 
bound  to  look  only  at  this  side  of  the  shield,  affect  great  con- 
tempt for  those  who  see  the  other  side,  and  are  liable  indig- 
nantl}'  to  exclaim,  "There  is  positively  no  limit  to  human 
stupidity  and  credulity  in  matters  relating  to  finance."  None 
so  sure  as  those  who  see  under  the  concentrated  light  of  self- 
interest  ! 

Now,  what  is  the  fact  in  regard  to  the  relative  value  of  the 
gold  and  silver  dollars  for  the  last  eight  years  ?  The  produc- 
tion of  gold  has  steadily  fallen  off,  its  consumption  in  the 
arts  has  steadily  increased,  its  function  as  money  has  been 


Sec.  28. ,]  THE  HONEST  DOLLAR.  69 

weighted  by  the  demonetization  of  silver,  and  prices  have 
steadily  declined  ;  these  facts  conspire  to  show  that  the  value 
of  the  gold  dollar  has  increased.  How  much,  it  would  be  diffi- 
cult to  say.  I  will  quote  J.  Barr  Robertson,  in  the  Economist, 
February  23d,  1884:  "Mr.  Goschen's  select  Committee,  all 
of  them  gold  standard  men,  produced  a  large  volume,  in  which 
they  satisfied  themselves  that  they  had  shown  the  causes  of 
the  "  depreciation  of  silver,"  but  the  Indian  Government  im- 
mediately produced  incontrovertible  evidence  to  prove  that 
silver  had  not  depreciated  in  purchasing  power,  and  last  spring 
Mr.  Goschen  gave  a  long  and  able  address  at  the  Institute 
of  Bankers,  to  show  what  the  bi-metallists  had  abundantly 
shown  for  the  previous  seven  years,  namety,  that  the  disturb- 
ance in  the  gold  price  of  silver  was  chiefly  due  to  the  apprecia- 
tion of  gold ;  so  that  Mr.  Goschen,  by  no  means  a  very  cour- 
ageous investigator,  has  come  over  to  the  bi-metallic  view,  that 
the  monetary  troubles  of  the  past  ten  years  have  been  mainly 
caused  by  the  rise  in  the  purchasing  power  of  gold,  while 
silver  has  remained  comparatively  stationary  in  purchasing 
power,  and  has  therefore  been  during  that  time  far  more  com- 
pletely a  standard  of  value  than  gold."  Later,  Dr.  Giffen,  the 
statistician,  has  come  to  the  support  of  the  same  view. 

The  prevailing  opinion  is  that  silver  has  depreciated  because 
it  has  been  demonetized  ;  but  this  very  act  of  demonetization 
of  silver  has  caused  a  greater  demand  for  gold  and  raised  its 
value.  Mr.  W.  "Westgrath  says,  in  the  Economist,  "As  gold 
has  been  (in  the  United  States  especially)  so  largely  substituted 
for  paper  as  well  as  for  silver,  I  agree  with  your  correspondent 
(Robertson)  that  the  result  has  been  decidedly  more  an  ap- 
preciation of  gold  than  a  depreciation  of  silver,  and  that  the 
effects  upon  our  trade,  and,  I  may  add,  upon  the  incidence  of 
our  public  debt,  have  thus  far  been  very  serious  indeed."  In 
speaking  of  the  efforts  to  get  silver  out  of  the  way,  Mr.  H.  R. 
Grenfell,  ex-Governor  of  the  Bank  of  England,  says  :  "  By 
these  processes  the  States  of  England,  Germany,  and  France 
have  created  an  artificial  demand  for  gold,  which  has  upset  all 


70  MONEY.  [Chap.  IV. 

prices,  enhanced  the  property  of  all  creditors,  and  diminished 
the  means  of  all  debtors."  (The  Economist,  March  1st,  1884.) 
Now,  what  is  there  to  show  that,  since  1877,  the  divergence 
in  the  bullion  values  of  gold  and  silver  has  been  wholly  due 
or  mainly  due  to  the  depreciation  of  silver  ?  I  am  somewhat 
conversant  with  current  references  to  this  subject,  and  I  know 
of  nothing  except  the  eternal  reiteration,  "  the  fall  of  silver," 
"  the  dishonest  silver  dollar,"  and  "  the  danger  of  getting  down 
to  the  debased  silver  standard." 

If  the  bullion  in  the  silver  dollar  will  buy  as  much  now  as 
it  would  in  1877T1880,  while  the  gold  dollar  will  buy  more, 
which  is  the  more  honest  dollar  ?  Or,  even  if  silver  has  de- 
preciated as  much  as  gold  has  appreciated  to  make  the  differ- 
ence that  has  taken  place  between  them  within  the  last  few 
years,  and  the  silver  dollar  is,  therefore,  dishonest,  is  not  the 
gold  dollar  equally  dishonest  ?  Herein  appears  the  assump- 
tion of  those  who  are  shouting  so  lustily  about  the  dishonest 
dollar.  The  trouble  with  this  business  is  that  the  creditor  class, 
the  mone}'  owners,  and  the  fixed- income  class,  are  the  people 
whose  views  are  mostly  voiced  in  our  great  journals,  and  it  is 
the  bias  of  these  classes  to  regard  the  dear  dollar  constantly 
growing  dearer,  as  the  truly  honest  dollar,  simply  because  it  is 
growing  heavier  in  their  pockets.  A  few  years  ago  an  eastern 
journal  had  a  heavy  editorial  to  prove  how  much  more  honest 
the  people  are  in  the  East  than  in  the  West,  in  this  country. 
We  cannot  justly  censure  classes  for  seeing  to  their  own  inter- 
ests ;  they  have  done  so  from  the  beginning,  but  none  the  less 
is  it  the  duty  of  the  great  body  of  the  people  whose  real 
interests  are  thus  threatened,  to  organize  for  the  encourage- 
ment of  a  higher  sort  of  "  honesty  "  than  that  which  has  been 
so  fulsome  of  late  in  its  own  praise.  I  have  no  doubt  that 
there  are  editors  South  and  West  as  well  as  East  who  reiterate 
the  catch  phrases  of  the  monometallists  without  having  given 
any  careful  attention  to  the  real  points  at  issue.  Gold  appears 
to  be  fixed  in  value  and  central  in  importance,  as  the  earth 
appears  to  be  fixed  in  the  centre  of  the  heavens ;  and,  giving 


SeC.  £9.~]  AN  ECONOMICAL  BULL.  71 

the  matter  no  careful  thought,  they  are  altogether  sincere  in 
assuming  that  the  gold  standard  is  uniform  and  silver  fluctuat- 
ing ;  and  they  join  in  the  chorus,  "  the  dishonest  silver  dollar !" 
With  them  it  is  as  if  the  earth  stood  still  and  the  heavens 
moved. 

29.  AN  ECONOMICAL  BULL. — Extremists  are  apt  to  be  con- 
fident and  dogmatic.  Fiatists  often  show  contempt  for  the 
idea  that  money  should  have  intrinsic  value.  The  monomet- 
allists  have  little  patience  with  people  who  have  the  "  silver 
craze."  The  one  set  appears  to  be  rather  blind,  the  other 
biased  and  bigoted.  The  fiatists  will  not  give  us  any  particu- 
lar trouble,  probably;  the  goldites  may.  With  all  their  as- 
sumption of  infallible  knowledge  of  the  subject,  the  single 
standard  people  sometimes  venture  too  much.  For  the  last 
seven  or  eight  years,  they  have  been  making  use  of  an  econom- 
ical bull  whose  absurdity  ought  fully  to  offset  the  weight  of 
their  oracular  method  of  putting  things.  They  have  vigorously 
asserted  that  the  continued  coinage  of  silver  would  soon  cause 
a  premium  on  gold  and  drive  it  out  of  circulation.  The  New 
York  Chamber  of  Commerce  has  been  greatly  exercised  on 
this  subject.  The  monometallist  journals  have  been  reiterat- 
ing from  week  to  week  the  same  lugubrious  vaticination. 
When  certain  congressmen  requested  President-elect  Cleveland 
not  to  commit  himself  on  the  silver  question  in  his  inaugural 
address,  he  forthwith  did  commit  himself  in  advance  in  an 
open  letter  to  these  same  congressmen,  and  repeated  this 
economical  bull  in  the  orthodox  and  approved  form.  Speaking 
of  the  results  of  continued  coinage,  he  said  :  "  Gold  would  be 
withdrawn  to  its  hoarding  places,  and  an  unprecedented  con- 
traction in  the  actual  volume  of  our  currency  would  speedily 
take  place.  Saddest  of  all,  in  every  workshop,  mill,  factory, 
store,  and  on  every  railroad  and  farm,  the  wages  of  labor, 
already  depressed,  would  suffer  still  further  depression  by  a 
scaling  down  of  the  purchasing  power  of  every  so-called  dollar 
paid  into  the  hand  of  toil."  This  is  earnest  and  pathetic. 
Here  are  clearly  delineated  the  two  horns  of  what  I  have  called 


72  MONET.  [Chap.  IV. 

an  economical  bull.  But  it  is  really  worse  than  this ;  it  is  a 
veritable  "  Irish  bull."  It  asserts,  first,  that  there  will  be  a 
great  contraction  of  the  currency,  and  that,  secondly,  upon 
this  contraction  will  follow  an  inflation  of  prices  on  fixed 
wages.  Now,  I  have  read  a  great  many  authors  on  political 
economy,  and  I  do  not  recollect  of  one  that  regards  rising 
prices  of  commodities  as  a  phenomenon  which  follows  a  great 
contraction  in  the  volume  of  the  currenc}'.  They  all  teach,  and 
all  experience  proves  that,  so  far  as  the  volume  of  the  currency 
affects  prices,  its  contraction  always  lowers  them.  If  the  great 
contraction  takes  place  which  the  Chambers  of  Commerce  and 
the  gold-stricken  editors  and  statesmen  warn  us  of,  rest  as- 
sured that  prices  will  go  down  and  not  up.  Money  is  like  any- 
thing else  that  is  limited  in  quantity,  its  value  increases  with 
the  demand  for  it.  When  there  is  great  contraction  of  the 
currency  and  the  annual  addition  by  coinage  and  paper  limited, 
ever}'  dollar  has  more  to  do  than  before,  and  ever}'  dollar  rises 
in  value  with  a  corresponding  fall  in  the  prices  of  commodities. 
If  there  are  any  elementary  principles  in  economics  which  all 
authorities  on  the  subject  accept,  this  is  among  them.  But 
here  are  great  American  financiers  taking  it  for  granted  that 
prices  would  inflate  on  a  fearful  contraction  in  the  volume 
of  our  currency!  I  might  rest  the  matter  here,  but  a  few  ad- 
ditional considerations  may  not  be  out  of  place. 

30.  THE  CHRONIC  FEAR  OP  A  PREMIUM  ON  GOLD. — In  the 
first  place,  the  forebodings  of  the  silver  aversionists  that  silver 
coinage  would  soon  drive  gold  out  of  circulation  and  out  of  the 
country,  have  not  been  justified  by  the  result.  Gold  does  not 
seem  to  have  partaken  of  the  antipathy  of  its  particular  friends 
toward  silver.  So  far  from  being  repelled  by  it,  it  seems  to 
have  felt  itself  really  invited  to  come  to  our  shores  by  millions 
upon  millions  to  keep  our  silver  dollars  compan}*,  and  never 
did  plebeian  and  aristocrat  mix  better  together.  But  still  do 
the  lugubrious  prophets  keep  up  the  cry  of  alarm.  Nothing 
will  do  but  an  immediate  suspension  of  the  coinage  of  silver. 
There  is  no  premium  yet  on  gold,  indeed  j  and  this  is  so  be- 


Sec.  30.~\      THE  CHRONIC  FEAR  OP  A  PREMIUM  ON  GOLD.  73 

cause  the  currency  managers  cannot  afford  to  maintain  a  pre- 
mium. The  great  banks  of  the  country  have  done  what  they 
could  to  disparage  silver.  They  have  openly  violated  the  law 
which  forbids  discrimination  against  silver  in  clearing  house 
transactions  ;  and  yet  they  have  not  been  able  to  discredit  it 
with  the  people.  Gold  has  been  exchanged  for  silver  certificates 
to  an  amount  almost  equal  to  half  our  entire  silver  coinage. 
No  progress  has  yet  been  made  in  lowering  the  currency  -ualue 
of  silver,  and  unless  the  present  management  of  the  treasury 
department  by  a  banker  with  a  bankers'  bias  should  cooperate 
more  effectively  with  the  bank  movement  against  silver  to 
discredit  it  and  coerce  Congress,  than  even  past  management 
has  done,  there  is,  perhaps,  little  immediate  danger  of  the 
dreaded  premium  on  gold.  Our  silver  coinage  may  go  on  at 
its  present  rate  to  the  very  eve  of  the  20th  century,  before  our 
supply  of  silver  currency  will  be  proportionally  greater  than 
that  which  France  keeps  constantly  in  circulation.  Wherefore, 
then,  this  chronic  state  of  alarm  ? 

But  suppose  there  should  be  a  premium  on  gold  within  the 
next  twelve  months,  would  there  be  the  great  contraction  we 
hear  so  much  of  ?  And  what  would  be  the  effect  on  prices  ? 
The  premium  could  not  be  maintained  for  a  day  except  by  a 
miracle  in  finance  which  will  not  be  wrought.  The  enemies 
of  silver  say  that  as  soon  as  the  premium  on  gold  appears, 
prices  will  rise.  But  such  a  rise  of  prices  means  either  a 
great  abundance  of  money  and  speculative  operations,  or  money 
that  is  dishonored  by  the  government  that  issues  it,  or  a  gen- 
eral scarcity  of  commodities.  The  last  condition  named  is  an 
impossible  one.  Our  greenbacks  are  not  increasing  in  quantity 
and  our  silver  money  which  is  increasing  is  receivable  for  all 
public  dues.  Silver  has  thus  a  very  wide  and  enlarging  field 
for  use,  affording  employment  for  hundreds  of  millions  of  it. 
But  our  supposition  is  that  under  these  circumstances  a 
premium  can  be  maintained  on  gold,  and  that  it  will  "seek  its 
hiding  places."  One  gold  organ  states  oracularly  that  one  per 
cent  premium  on  gold  will  send  it  out  of  circulation.  Then, 


74  MONET.  [Chap.  IV. 

of  course,  there  \vould  be  contraction  to  the  entire  amount 
of  gold  in  the  country,  say  $600,000,000.  If  gold  thus  becomes 
as  complete!}'  dead  to  business  transactions  as  if  it  -were  put 
back  into  the  mines  it  came  from,  then  is  there  contraction  by 
this  much,  prices  will  fall,  and  the  friends  of  gold  will  be 
abundantly  gratified  with  cheap  living  for  the  poor  laboring 
people  !  Under  so  great  a  contraction,  money  would  be  scarce, 
prices  low,  consumers  economical,  the  exportation  of  commod- 
ities would  increase,  and  the  money  of  the  world  would  begin 
to  flow  toward  us.  But  how  could  this  be  with  the  country 
full  of  hoarded  gold  ?  It  is  absurd.  No  sooner  had  all  the 
gold  been  hidden  under  such  circumstances,  than  the  increased 
demand  for  money  would  call  it  from  its  hiding  places  shorn 
of  its  premium  ; — and  that's  precisely  the  reason  why  there  is 
no  premium  on  gold  and  why  gold  doesn't  hide  as  affirmed. 
And  whenever  a  writer  asserts  that  there  may  be  a  slight  pre- 
mium on  gold  which  will  cause  it  all  to  become  dead  to  the 
country  as  money,  thereby  causing  a  great  contraction  of  the 
currency  which  will  derange  all  business  operations,  he  is 
guilty  of  a  financial  absurdity,  even  if  he  does  not  add  that 
prices  (of  everything  except  labor)  will  inflate  to  the  dis- 
advantage of  the  sons  of  toil ! 

True,  with  the  continued  coinage  of  silver  and  no  cottpera- 
tion  with  us  on  a  bi-metallic  basis  by  other  nations,  the  time 
would  come  when  there  would  be  a  premium  on  gold.  But 
this  would  not  cause  any  fearful  contraction  of  the  currency. 
The  premium  could  be  maintained  only  when  other  forms 
of  money  are  plentiful ;  and  then,  with  the  premium  on  gold, 
there  might  be  rising  prices.  But  would  this  derange  and 
prostrate  business  ?  Some  rise  in  prices  might  not  be  a  bad 
thing.  They  have  been  going  down  for  some  fifteen  years 
past,  because  gold  which  measures  them  has  been  going  up ; 
and  if  they  should  move  somewhat  in  the  contrary  direction, 
it  would  be  only  in  the  interest  of  business  and  greatly  to  the 
advantage  of  fair  dealing  between  man  and  man.  But  why 
would  not  a  small  premium  on  gold  cause  contraction  and  fall 


Sec.  31."]      NATURAL  SELECTION  AND  MONOMETALLISM.  75 

of  prices  ?  Because  a  small  or  nearly  stationary  premium  of 
gold  does  not  deprive  it  of  its  functions  as  money.  It  may 
still  pass  from  hand  to  hand  and  do  the  work  of  money. 
It  is  only  hoarded  and  lost  to  business  as  money  when  the 
premium  is  rising  rapidly  enough  to  make  it  profitable  to  lay 
away  as  an  investment.  In  some  form,  gold  must  be  gaining 
in  value  at  a  certain  percentage  per  annum  to  warrant  its  with- 
drawal from  use  as  money,  and  even  then  it  may  be  used  to 
buy  property  and  pay  debts  with,  the  premium  being  added. 
It  is  true  that  under  such  circumstances  the  tendency  would 
be  for  gold  to  flow  from  us,  but  there  would  be  none  of  that 
suddenness  we  hear  so  much  of.  Even  now,  indeed  at  any 
time,  gold  circulates  very  little  among  the  masses  of  business 
men.  It  is  nearly  all  in  the  Treasury  and  the  banks. 
Silver  and  silver  certificates  circulate  a  great  deal  more 
than  gold,  although  the  gold  organs  uniformly  assure  us  that 
gold  does  circulate,  and  that  silver  will  not  circulate.  The 
manifestations  of  alarm  on  this  subject  are  altogether  too  de- 
monstrative. When  the  premium  on  gold  really  appears  with 
the  prospect  of  permanence,  then  surely  it  will  be  time  enough, 
even  on  the  gold  basis  doctrine,  to  cease  adding  to  the  volume 
of  silver  monc}*.  Surely  this  would  tie  us  down  sufficiently 
near  to  the  gold  standard  on  diminishing  gold  and  falling 
prices ;  and  this  ought  to  be  enough  in  all  conscience  to  satisfy 
the  greed  of  the  creditor  class. 

31.  NATURAL  SELECTION  AND  MONOMETALLISM. — Every  one 
who  has  given  this  subject  attention  and  has  not  a  class  interest 
to  subserve,  must  admit  that  the  permanent  and  continual  con- 
traction which  general  gold  monometallism  necessitates,  would 
be  unjust  and  calamitous  to  the  last  degree.  Still,  the  commercial 
world  has  appeared  to  be  drifting  steadily  into  gold  monomet- 
allism. An  authoritative  writer  assures  us  that  this  takes 
place  on  the  principle  of  "  natural  selection."  There  are  two 
kinds  of  natural  selection ;  the  one  comes  by  the  prevalence 
of  might ;  the  other  by  the  prevalence  of  fitness.  In  some 
cases  the  two  kinds  coalesce,  but  not  in  all.  The  survivors 


76  MONEY.  [Chap.  IV. 

may  be  the  meanest  and  unfittest  possible,  as  when  a  cowardly 
soldier  survives  by  deserting  his  brave  comrades.  This  kind 
of  survival  is  too  common  in  the  human  sphere.  I  know  very 
well  that  in  the  wild  woods  the  big  bulls  and  the  like  have 
things  pretty  much  their  own  way,  and  by  selfish  aggression 
subordinate  the  smaller  and  feebler  competitors,  whereby  suc- 
cessive generations  of  these  animals  maintain,  or  may  be  in- 
crease, their  vigor.  These  big  fellows  are  also  the  fittest.  But 
is  this  the  regime  under  which  it  is  the  fatalit}'  of  civilized 
man  to  live,  the  regime  of  brute  force  ?  Much,  indeed,  like 
this,  is  to  be  found  in  history.  By  natural  selection  under  the 
play  of  physical  and  mental  conflict,  the  strong  and  selfish 
have  had  things  their  own  way,  and  directed  government  to 
the  furtherance  of  their  own  class  aims.  But  these  have  not 
always  maintained  their  ground.  A  new  principle  came  into 
vogue  to  dispute  the  supremac}'  of  brute  force,  and  to  secure 
some  degree  of  freedom  for  the  people — in  theory  at  least. 
Natural  selection  is  becoming  modified  within  the  human 
domain  toward  rational  and  equitable  selection,  and  is  bring- 
ing about,  under  great  difficulties,  a  very  different  state  of 
things  from  that  which  formerly  prevailed.  Nay  not  some- 
thing like  this  be  possible  in  the  financial  field  ?  A  few  strong 
classes,  and  the  stronger  because  limited  in  numbers,  devoted 
to  financial  legerdemain,  now  control,  to  a  very  great  degree, 
the  financial  affairs  of  the  world ;  and  they  control  them  in 
their  own  interests,  whatever  may  be  the  effect  on  other  inter- 
ests. Thus  comes  about  gold  monometallism,  characterized  by 
Mr.  Horace  White  in  Lalor's  Cyclopaedia  of  Political  Science, 
as  a  movement  in  accordance  with  and  secured  by  the  great 
law  of  natural  selection.  Natural  Selection — unhappy  maiden  ! 
At  first  defamed,  now  insulted  ! 

If  the  people  understood  this  subject  better,  and  once  organ- 
ized for  the  maintenance  of  as  great  uniformity  as  possible  in 
the  denominator  of  values,  natural  selection  would  take  a  very 
different  tack.  There  is  no  reason  whatever  but  the  immediate 
selfish  interest  of  a  class  why  gold  alone  should  become  the 


Sec.  81.]     NATURAL  SELECTION  AND  MONOMETALLISM.  77 

money  of  account  for  the  whole  commercial  world,  or  even  for 
the  leading  commercial  nations.  Gold  would  not  demonetize 
silver,  if  it  had  not  powerful  class  interests  behind  it,  pushing 
with  all  their  might  to  get  silver  and  its  representative  paper 
into  the  background.  The  banking  interest  is  perhaps  the 
most  powerful  in  this  country,  that  is  engaged  in  this  work. 
It  has  the  means  at  hand,  as  much  as  any  class,  through 
official  reports  and  press  comments,  to  mold  the  public  senti- 
ment to  its  liking ;  and  mcst  bankers  are  gold  monometallists, 
with,  however,  some  honorable  exceptions,  and  these  among 
the  higher  order  of  bankers.  The  immediate  interests  of  bank- 
ers as  owners  of  money  and  credits,  are  promoted  by  having 
money  rising  in  value  j  hence,  the  demonetization  of  silver 
would  directly  favor  these  interests.  Again,  there  is  still  a 
profit,  and  in  country  places  a  large  profit,  in  the  issue  of  paper 
money  for  circulation  ;  and  the  less  silver  and  fewer  silver 
certificates  there  are  in  the  way,  the  larger  their  issues  may  be 
and  the  greater  their  profits.  Hence,  their  opposition  to  silver 
and,  especially,  to  silver  certificates.  The  government  (the 
people)  now  gets  the  profit  on  furnishing  this  money;  but 
there  is  a  greedy  class  that  wants  this  profit,  and  hence  the 
clamor.  It  is  even  pretended  that  the  silver  coinage  is  carried 
on  by  the  government  at  the  loss  of  every  dollar  that  is  not  in 
circulation,  and  yet  those  people  who  so  claim  are  opposed  to 
payments  in  silver,  and  are  even  willing  to  exchange  gold  by 
the  million  for  silver  tokens,  rather  than  that  the  government 
should  pay  out  its  silver  to  public  creditors.  By  an  illu- 
sion easy  to  explain,  the  hoarded  silver  in  the  treasury  is  a 
dead  loss,  while  the  hoarded  gold  is  something  like  a  clear 
gain  ! 

Again,  the  narrower  the  metallic  basis  on  which  the  paper 
circulation  rests,  and  the  more  exclusively  that  circulation  is 
under  the  control  of  a  comparatively  small  class,  the  greater 
power  has  that  class  over  the  volume  and  value  of  the  currency 
for  the  gambling  advantages  which  grow  out  of  currency  fluc- 
tuations. Hence  the  opposition  of  a  great  and  influential  class 


78  MONEY.  [Chap.  IV. 

to  silver,  silver  certificates,  and  United  States  notes  as  part 
of  the  circulating  medium  of  the  country. 

32.  WHO  SHOULD  MAKE  THE  PAPER  MONEY. — The  making 
and  regulating  of  the  paper  money  of  the  country  is  a  very 
great  power,  a  power  which  the  government  should  never 
delegate  to  corporations.  Banks  issue  paper  money  and  regu- 
late such  issue,  not  for  the  public  good,  but  to  get  the  largest 
possible  profits.  We  hear  a  great  deal  in  the  literature  of 
banking  about  the  elasticity  of  bank  money,  how  it  automatic- 
ally accommodates  itself  to  the  wants  of  trade.  When  much 
money  is  wanted,  much  is  to  be  had,  and  when  it  is  not 
wanted,  the  circulation  contracts.  Ay,  a  very  fine  theory  never 
yet  reduced  to  practice.  Banks  are  very  free  to  expand  circu- 
lation precisely  when  they  should  not — during  a  speculative 
mania, — but  very  careful  to  contract  precisely  when  the  public 
is  in  most  need  of  their  help — in  times  of  depression.  A  large 
amount  of  credit  always  precedes  periods  of  business  distress. 
The  corporate  power  of  making  credit  money  aggravates  the 
disease  of  over-credit  at  a  time  when  there  is  need  of  an  anti- 
dote ;  and  then,  when  the  crisis  comes,  the  banks  withhold 
their  aid  from  the  very  people  who  are  most  in  need  of  it. 
They  first  encourage  overtrading  to  make  profit  for  themselves, 
and  then  when  the  panic  strikes  they  withhold  acccomodations 
to  save  themselves  ;  and  thus  they  make  the  condition  worse 
by  helping  business  men  to  get  into  trouble,  and  then  refusing 
to  help  them  out  of  it.  (Sec.  10.) 

We  should  have  commercial  crises  without  banks  of  issue. 
Banks  that  do  not  issue  paper  money,  and  all  money-lenders 
arc,  no  doubt,  free  to  accommodate  in  periods  of  general  confi- 
dence, and  very  careful  about  accomodating  under  a  general 
want  of  confidence :  and  to  pretend  that  banks  of  issue  are 
institutions  which  favor  general  interests  under  such  circum- 
stances, is  to  act  under  a  bias  that  will  not  bear  the  light. 
Prof.  Sumner,  whose  authority  is  good  for  such  a  fact,  states, 
in  his  "American  Currency  "  that,  in  1818,  under  the  auspices 
of  the  United  States  Bank  and  its  branches,  there  was  a  golden 


SeC.  82.~]         WHO  SHOULD  MAKE  THE  PAPER  MONEY.  79 

age  of  business.  But  the  Jbanks  had  overissued  and  had  to 
contract.  The  United  States  Bank  contracted  $6,000,000  in 
one  3*ear,  and  when  it  had  succeeded  in  saving  itself  "  it  had 
ruined  the  community"  (pp.  77-79).  According  to  Amasa 
Walker,  Science  of  Wealth,  (pp.  158,  160,  167,  168,  208,  293), 
banks  extend  credits  when  safe  and  stimulate  speculation ; 
when  panic  comes,  the}'  annihilate  a  part  of  the  currency  just 
when  it  is  most  needed.  Banks,  like  all  creditors,  must  secure 
their  own  safety  under  the  perils  of  credit,  and  they  arc  not 
the  beneficient  institutions  special  pleaders  would  have  us 
think.  I  have  no  fault  to  find  with  banks  and  money-lenders; 
there  are  laws  which  govern  the  conditions  of  profit  and  safety, 
and  these  laws  it  is  their  right  and  duty  to  observe.  It  is  the 
power  of  making  paper-money  that  is  objectionable .  The 
day  is  about  past  when  there  is  need  for  the  exercise  of  any 
such  power.  I  believe  it  is  a  duty  which  the  people  owe  to 
themselves,  to  put  an  end  to  this  power,  as  a  function  of  self- 
seeking  corporations,  whose  interests  are  not  by  any  means  at 
one  with  the  general  interests  of  the  people. 

There  is  no  use  at  present,  perhaps,  for  more  silver  dollars 
than  we  have,  but  there  is  use  for  more  silver  certificates,  and 
a  considerable  proportion  of  these  should  be  of  the  denomina- 
tions of  one,  two,  and  five  dollars.  In  this  way  many  millions 
of  silver  might  be  very  readily  got  into  circulation.  The  peo- 
ple are  not  afraid  of  a  silver  certificate  that  will  buy  as  much 
as  a  gold  piece  of  the  same  denomination.  It  is  to  be  hoped 
that  nothing  will  be  done  to  hinder  the  utilization  of  silver  as 
money.  If  there  is  a  better  way  than  the  present  system  of 
coinage,  let  it  be  adopted.  It  is  not  possible  for  gold  to  act 
alone  as  the  denominator  of  values  throughout  the  civilized 
world  without  an  arbitrar}-  redistribution  of  wealth  among 
classes,  that  cannot  be  consummated  without  fatal  conse- 
quences. Let  the  gold  monometallists  restrain  their  greed, 
and  take  heed  in  time  ! 

Some  who  have  fought  the  "silver  craze"  most  violently, 
wish  the  issue  of  silver  money  stopped  with  the  avowed  inten- 


80  MONET.  [Chap.  IV. 

tion  of  reducing  still  further  the  bullion  value  of  silver,  in 
order  to  compel  European  nations  to  cooperate  with  us 
for  the  reestablishment  of  bi-metallism.  It  is  difficult  to  be- 
lieve in  the  sincerity  of  this  recommendation.  Its  aim,  it  is  to 
be  feared,  is  really  to  bring  about  as  great  a  divergence  as 
possible  between  the  values  of  silver  and  gold,  so  as  to  get  the 
former  out  of  the  wa}T  altogether.  Stop  the  further  use  of  sil- 
ver as  money  or  as  the  basis  of  money,  and  silver  bullion  will 
decline  (apparently)  in  relative  value  still  more,  and  the  greater 
its  apparent  decline,  the  more  triumphantly  will  its  enemies 
point  to  the  "dishonest"  American  dollar  as  something  it 
would  be  meritorious  to  put  wholly  out  of  the  way. 

However,  hardly  any  of  us  know  in  advance  what  the  result 
would  be  of  stopping  the  coinage  of  silver.  As  there  is  able 
advocacy  of  bi-metallism  in  England,  and  recent  indications 
that  Germany  is  growing  tired  of  gold  monometallism,  possibly 
the  further  contraction  of  the  world's  money  would  have  a 
beneficial  effect  in  opening  the  eyes  of  many  who  are  not  yet 
convinced.  Very  often  the  good  is  to  be  had  only  through  the 
increased  pressure  of  suffering.  It  is  to  the  continued  depres- 
sing defects  of  appreciating  gold  and  falling  prices  we  are  to 
look  for  relief  by  reaction,  rather  than  to  the  mere  fall  of  the 
bullion  value  of  silver.  A  few  more  "  turns  of  the  screws," 
however,  may  lead  to  excited  agitation  which  cannot  always  be 
wisely  directed  in  this  country,  and  instead  of  getting  rid  of 
silver,  we  may  be  precipitated  into  free  coinage  and  the  United 
States  become  a  silver  standard  country.  Monometallists,  like 
the  late  slaveholders,  in  grasping  after  too  much  may  lose 
what  they  have  ; — such  are  sometimes  the  revenges  of  fate. 

The  heroic  fiatist  is  ready  to  ask,  why,  if  I  do  not  believe  in 
dear  money,  I  do  not  advocate  a  credit  currency  which  may  be 
expanded  according  to  need.  We  have  credit  money — our 
greenbacks,  and  very  good  money  it  is,  and  all  the  better,  no 
doubt,  because  the  quantity  cannot  at  present  be  increased. 
As  it  stands,  what  is  above  the  gold  in  store  for  its  redemp- 
tion, corresponds  to  the  $75,000,000  credit  money  issued  by 


Sec.  32]         WHO  SHOULD  MAKE  THE  PAPER  MONEY.  81 

the  Bank  of  England,  and  proved  by  faithful  service  to  be  safe 
and  useful  currency.  The  danger  lies  in  the  temptation  to  in- 
crease the  quantity  of  such  money  without  sufficient  warrant. 
If  the  popular  judgment  could  always  be  relied  on  to  resist 
the  undue  temptation,  we  might  trust  the  power;  but  unfortun- 
ately this  is  a  difficult  subject,  and  only  experts  understand  it, 
if  indeed  any  do.  Besides,  a  great  many  conditions  interact 
to  determine  what  amount  of  money  is  needed,  while  the  con- 
ditions are  constantly  fluctuating,  rendering  it  still  more  diffi- 
cult to  estimate  their  value  at  any  particular  time.  Ricardo's 
plan  for  a  National  Bank  is  essentially  that  of  a  fiat  money 
institution ;  and  he  thought  that  the  power  of  issuing  paper 
monej'  might  safely  be  invested  in  a  commission.  But  all  this 
is  too  difficult  and  remote  as  a  practical  thing,  and  we  must 
choose  what  is  apparently  the  best  within  reach.  For  contracts 
of  long  standing,  the  composite  standard  of  values,  whereby  the 
worth  of  credits  is  determined  by  a  comparison  of  the  market 
prices  of  commodities,  would  no  doubt  afford  the  fairest  pos- 
sible measure  of  the  fluctuating  value  of  credits  ;  and  it  is  pro- 
nounced b}T  competent  persons  to  be  perfectly  feasible.  On 
this  plan,  the  debtor  would  pay  the  exact  amount  he  borrowed. 
An  arrangement  of  this  sort  would  still  "  the  battle  of  the 
standards."  But  owing  to  the  force  of  habit,  the  indifference 
about  justice  of  this  kind,  and  the  disposition  to  maintain 
opportunities  for  the  shrewd,  there  is  no  movement  made,  in  a 
manner  so  simple  and  direct,  to  secure  justice  between  debtor 
and  creditor. 

The  best  practical  thing,  then,  appears  to  be  to  stick  to  the 
old  money  metals,  gold  and  silver,  as  the  substantial  basis 
of  all  currencj*.  It  has  been  demonstrated  by  economists,  and 
admitted  by  some  inonometallists,  that  the  bi-metallic  standard 
is  more  uniform  than  any  monometallic  standard  can  be.  This 
is  true,  because  the  fluctuations  in  one  of  the  metals  com- 
pensates to  some  extent  the  fluctuations  in  the  other  metal. 
The  use  of  certificates  does  away  with  the  objection  to  the  bulk 
and  weight  of  the  cheaper  metal ;  and  there  is  no  reason  what- 


82  MONEY.  [Chap.  IV. 

ever,  but  in  the  cannibal  greed  of  remorseless  class  interests, 
why  both  metals  should  not  be  honored,  and  equally  retained 
as  conjointly  the  denominator  of  values. 

I  have  taken  it  for  granted  that  gold  and  silver  at  a  stated 
ratio  agreed  on  by  the  great  commercial  nations  will  circulate 
side  by  side.  I  regard  this  as  one  of  the  demonstrated  princi- 
ples of  economic  science.  Even  without  such  general  agree- 
ment, France  and  the  United  States  have  maintained  an  im- 
mense quantity  of  silver  as  money,  although  it  has  been 
overvalued.  With  a  general  agreement  on  ratio  among  the 
nations,  free  coinage  would  be  practicable,  and  no  premium 
could  arise  on  the  under-valued  metal.  Under  such  an  agree- 
ment, whero  would  the  undervalued  metal  go  to  get  a  premium 
on  itself  ?  It  is  clear,  it  could  get  no  premium,  and  without 
any  it  would  circulate  as  freely  as  the  overvalued  metal. 
Money  is  not  merchandise,  and,  in  some  respects,  the  laws 
which  govern  the  circulation  and  values  of  the  two,  are  very 
different. 

33.  MONOMETALLISM  A  COVERT  SECTIONAL  INTEREST. — In 
conclusion,  I  may  observe  that  the  creditor  interest  of  this 
country  is  not  only  a  class  interest,  but  is  quite  distinctly  a 
sectional  interest.  Bankers  with  large  capital,  rnonej'-lenders 
and  other  credit-owners,  and  men  living  on  fixed  salaries,  are 
chiefly  to  be  found  in  certain  cities  and  States.  While  they 
are  not  anywhere  the  most  numerous  part  of  the  population, 
they  are  by  far  the  most  influential  part.  They  have  time  and 
means  to  give  to  the  furtherance  of  their  own  peculiar  inter- 
ests, and  this  they  do  by  influencing  nominations,  elections, 
the  course  of  legislation,  and  the  execution  of  the  laws. 
Hence,  the  great  newspapers  in  these  sections,  and  the  legis- 
lators and  executive  officers  thereof,  quite  generally  favor  the 
interests  and  privileges  of  these  strong  classes,  wherefore  the 
molding  of  opinion  becomes  to  a  certain  extent  a  sectional 
matter,  and  we  have  witnessed  the  phenomena  of  newspapers 
in  one  section  censuring  the  tendencies  of  public  opinion  in 
another  section.  This  attempt  to  force  us  down  to  the  ex- 


See.  &£.]  CONTROL  OF  THE  SOIL.  83 

elusive  gold  basis  will  be  found  to  be  strongest  in  those  sec- 
tions in  which  the  creditor  class  is  most  weighty.  But  the 
people  of  those  sections  should  none  the  less  resist  this  tend- 
ency, for  they,  as  well  as  the  people  who  live  on  the  broad 
fields  of  the  South  and  "West,  will  be  victimized  in  the  end  by 
a  remorseless  contraction,  if  gold  monometallism  prevail. 

"Are  you  not,"  asks  one  who  is  perfectly  satisfied  with  the 
mill  as  it  runs, — "are  you  not  fomenting  class  and  sectional 
jealousies  ?  "  Fomenting  jealousies  !  If  I  have  said  what  is 
not  true,  it  is  easy  to  kill  it  by  showing  that  it  is  false.  If  I 
have  told  the  truth,  it  is  precisely  what  all  should  know.  A 
truth  is  never  put  out  of  the  way  by  a  disingenuous  fling  at 
its  tendencies.  It  is  the  ignorant  and  contumacious  resistance 
to  change  and  correction  that  invites  disaster  to  fall  with  the 
unlooked-for  suddenness  of  an  avenging  bolt.  One  of  the  best 
things  Herbert  Spencer  said  when  in  this  country,  was  that 
our  people  are  too  apt  tamely  to  accept  the  situation  without 
criticism  or  complaint.  A  little  criticism  as  searching  as  it 
can  be  made  is  not  to  be  deprecated.  If  it  involves  errors, 
there  is  an  antidote — counter-criticism. 


CHAPTER  V. 
MONOPOLY  ADVANTAGES. 

34.  CONTROL  OF  THE  SOIL. — One  of  the  most  difficult  prob- 
lems society  has  to  deal  with  relates  to  the  control  of  the  soil. 
A  diversity  of  methods  have  been  adopted  by  mankind  at 
various  times  and  in  various  places,  and  all  proved  to  be  prac- 
tical after  a  fashion.  No  general  law  has  been  discovered 
whereby  the  claims  of  individuals  to  the  soil  may  be  deter- 
mined. That  with  which  we  are  practically  familiar,  exclusive 
title  and  freedom  of  purchase  and  sale,  is  looked  upon  by 


84  MONOPOLY  ADVANTAGES.  {.Chap.  V. 

many  as  embodying  within  itself  a  high  economical  principle, 
and  fitted  to  bring  about  the  best  practical  results.  Possibly 
this  is  so,  but  it  is  attended  with  very  serious  evils.  Perfect 
freedom  in  the  acquisition  of  exclusive  title  to  lands  may  be, 
indeed,  a  very  high  order  of  freedom,  which  must  be  sustained 
at  all  hazards  ;  its  drawback,  however,  is  that,  in  its  results,  it 
is  quite  largely  destructive  of  freedom.  Small  owners  are 
readily  absorbed  under  the  aggressive  energy  of  large  owners, 
and  the  tenant  cannot  be  as  manly  a  man,  nor  as  good  a  citizen, 
as  if  he  were  an  independent  owner.  The  increase  in  number 
and  size  of  large  possessions  in  land  cuts  off  by  so  much  the 
opportunities  for  independent  ownership,  and  thereby  promotes 
a  sort  of  modified  slavery.  But  I  need  not  attempt  to  depict 
the  horrors  of  land  monopoly;  this  has  been  done  again  and 
again,  and  we  we  may  see  for  ourselves  some  of  them  existing 
at  present  in  other  and  older  nations.  The  evil  is  gradually 
gaining  ground  in  this  country,  and  is  assisted  by  public 
opinion  and  national  legislation.  The  great  landlord  is  a  big 
man  here  as  well  as  in  Europe,  and,  while  great  landed  estates 
afford  safe  investments  and  a  condition  of  personal  con- 
sequence, our  great  landlords  are  likely  to  multiply  in  number. 
About  two  hundred  million  acres  have  been  given  away  to 
railroads — an  area  equal  to  eight  or  ten  large  States.  The 
good  side  of  this  liberality  is  to  be  seen  in  the  improvements 
which  have  followed  the  donations,  and  which  but  for  the 
donations  would  not  have  been  made.  But  this  good,  like 
many  another,  has  been  largely  neutralized  by  attempting  to 
get  too  much  of  it,  and  much  land  was  given  away  that  has 
brought  no  return. 

If  all  the  land  given  to  States  and  companies  for  railroad 
purposes  should  be  eventually  sold  to  actual  settlers,  so  far 
good.  But  there  are  bad  elements  in  this  procedure.  Every 
settler  is  made  to  pa}*  for  all  the  good  which  has  accrued  from 
accessibility  to  the  land  he  buys  of  the  railroad,  but  he  gets 
nothing  for  the  value  he  adds  by  his  own  improvements  to  the 
lands  still  belonging  to  the  corporation.  Every  improvement 


SeC.  34.]  CONTROL  OP  THE  SOIL.  85 

he  makes  adds  to  this  value,  thus  enabling  the  monopoly  to 
reap,  without  conpensation,  from  the  toil  of  others.  There  is 
nothing  reciprocal  or  just  about  it.  The  grant  by  alternate 
sections  is  a  device  by  which  the  corporations  reap  benefit  from 
the  occupation  and  improvement  of  the  public  lands  as  well  as 
of  those  which  have  passed  from  themselves  to  actual  settlers. 
If  all  these  lands  had  been  reserved  for  actual  settlement, 
these  forms  of  injustice  could  not  have  arisen.  If  the  railroad 
companies,  or  some  of  them,  should  retain  a  part  of  their 
lands,  placing  them  under  corporate  control  with  a  numerous 
tenantry,  we  should  have  a  condition  of  things  not  at  all 
pleasant  to  contemplate.  But  this  is  actually  coming  about 
in  a  little  different  form.  At  the  present  time  foreign  individ- 
uals and  syndicates  own  more  than  twenty  million  acres  of 
American  lands  in  large  tracts.  Besides  this,  about  ten  mill- 
ion acres  are  held  in  large  tracts  by  Americans, — individuals 
and  syndicates.  Thirty  million  acres  in  all,  equivalent  to  a 
large  State !  Most  of  this  has  been  secured  by  transfer  of 
title  from  the  railroad  companies  to  the  foreign  and  American 
monopolists,  who  will  manage  them  solely  for  a  return  of 
profit  on  their  investments.  If  they  hold  these  lauds  on 
speculation,  there  is  wrong ;  if  they  cover  them  with  tenants, 
there  is  evil.  It  is  bad  enough  when  American  syndicates 
control  vast  tracts  to  the  exclusion  of  independent  settlers ; 
but  it  is  still  worse  when  those  in  control  owe  allegiance  to 
foreign  States  in  which  landlordism  is  one  of  the  prevalent 
forms  of  aristocracy. 

These  large  holdings  arc  altogether  incompatible  with  the 
interests  of  small  proprietors ;  and  I  am  told  that  whenever 
these  with  prior  claims  have  been  induced  to  unite  their  inter- 
ests with  the  syndicates,  they  have  suffered,  as  small  stock- 
holders usually  suffer  from  a  mysterious  spiriting  away  of 
fair  dividends.  Those  great  owners  who  keep  herds,  also 
maintain  a  herd  of  dependants  who  have  little  home  life,  no 
permanent  interest  in  the  neighborhood,  ready  for  any  advent- 
ure, not  good  citizens.  Probably  much  of  these  lands,  being 


86  MONOPOLY  ADVANTAGES.  [Chap.  V. 

adapted  to  stockgrowing,  is  best  managed  in  large  tracts,  but 
even  this  is  denied.  If,  however,  this  be  true,  it  is  no  reason 
why  a  government  of  the  people  should  permit  the  people's 
lands  to  pass  into  the  control  of  foreign  syndicates,  or  any 
other  syndicates.  It  is  not  true,  however,  that  all  these  lands 
belong  to  the  grazing  regions.  They  are  located  in  West 
Virginia,  in  Wisconsin,  in  Mississippi,  in  Arkansas,  and  in 
Florida,  as  well  as  in  Kansas,  Colorado,  Texas  and  New 
Mexico.  (Countr}T  Gentleman,  August  13, 1885 ;  and  Congres- 
sional Record,  March  10, 1885).  Whatever  this  monopoly  may 
be  in  the  grazing  regions,  it  is,  in  the  agricultural  regions,  a 
violation  of  the  just  rights  of  the  people,  and  an  unmitigated 
evil.  It  has  not  even  the  advantage  of  present  good  ;  it  is  a 
menace  to  prosperity  from  first  to  last.  This  is  an  instance  in 
which  the  introduction  of  foreign  capital  into  this  country  is  a 
curse  without  palliation.  There  is  here  a  conflict  of  interests 
between  classes,  a  conflict  which  will  deepen  with  the  years, 
and  in  regard  to  which,  the  shallow  statesmanship  that  sees 
only  the  present  should  not  be  allowed  to  dictate  a  policy  of 
inaction. 

There  is  present  wrong  to  be  met  growing  out  of  former 
land  grants.  In  many  instances  these  have  been  forfeited  by 
non-compliance  with  the  conditions  on  which  the  grants  were 
made ;  and  then,  as  our  experience  proves,  it  is  almost  impos- 
sible to  secure  a  formal  declaration  of  forfeiture  for  the 
restoration  of  the  lands  to  the  public  domain.  If  a  railroad 
corporation,  for  example,  is  not  able  or  not  willing  to  build  its 
road,  it  is,  nevertheless,  both  able  and  willing  to  operate  on 
Congress  for  the  defeat  of  any  scheme  that  looks  to  forfeiture. 
There  are  men  in  Congress  who  become  indignant  at  the  men- 
tion of  forfeiting  title  to  such  lands.  They  look  upon  it  as  a 
part  of  systematic  persecution  against  corporations  ;  and  while 
they  want  to  promote  intelligence  and  morality  by  a  draft  on 
the  Treasury  for  national  education,  and  by  enforcing  total  ab- 
stinence at  the  point  of  the  bayonet,  they  are  perfectly  willing 
that  the  public  lands  shall  go  into  the  hands  of  delinquent 


Sec.  35J]  INHERENT  MONOPOLY.  87 

monopolists,  and  thus  pass  out  of  reach  of  the  masses  when 
made  sufficiently  intelligent  and  temperate  to  desire  homes  of 
their  own. 

Another  wrong  which  has  been  practiced  in  connection  with 
these  grants,  is  that  of  shifting  the  location  of  the  road,  so  as 
to  reach  new  sections  while  clinging  to  the  old.  The  adminis- 
tration of  the  Interior  Department,  however,  gives  excellent 
promise  of  greater  vigilance  than  heretofore  in  thwarting  the 
various  forms  of  sharp  practice  against  the  people's  interests 
in  the  public  domain.  Let  us  pray  that  the  officials  who  have 
these  duties  in  charge  will  not  become  weary  in  well  doing ! 

But  there  is  need  of  something  more  than  honest  adminis- 
tration; other  legislation  is  required.  The  grazing  lands  of 
the  West  present  altogether  different  conditions  from  that  with 
which  legislation  had  to  deal  in  the  agricultural  sections  of  the 
United  States.  Cultivation  is  impossible,  stock-raising  only  is 
available,  and  individual  settlers  must  be  able  to  secure  many 
times  as  much  land  for  personal  independence,  as  would  be 
sufficient  on  an  agricultural  soil.  An  individual  ranchman  of 
moderate  means  has  no  security  now ;  when  a  great  stock  com- 
pany has  invested  him  on  all  sides,  he  is  compelled  to  sur- 
render. The  little  cattle  men  are  sure  to  be  eaten  by  the  big 
ones ;  and  for  want  of  proper  laws  to  be  administered  for  their 
protection,  the  unpretentious  individual  enterprises  are  crushed 
under  the  relentless  hands  of  lords  and  syndicates.  So  far  as 
our  land  laws  are  concerned,  our  government  is,  in  regard  to 
all  this  grazing  territory,  a  government  for  aggressive  monop- 
olies, home  and  foreign,  and  not  for  the  average  individual 
citizen. 

35.  INHERENT  MONOPOLY. — Every  railroad  is  within  itself, 
to  some  extent,  a  monopoly.  It  is  not  like  a  river  on  which 
carriers  may  launch  their  boats  and  compete  with  one  another. 
It  owns  the  road  and  runs  the  cars,  and  there  is  no  competi- 
tion except  what  is  made  by  waterwaj's  and  by  other  roads. 
There  may  be  competition  at  the  termini  and  at  certain  inter- 
mediate points,  but  hardly  in  any  case  can  there  be  competition 


88  MONOPOLY  ADVANTAGES.  [Chap.  V. 

at  all  points  ;  and  wherever  there  is  not  competition  there  is 
monopoly.  But  even  a  monopolistic  power  has  certain  neces- 
sary limitations.  Charges  which  are  too  grossly  exorbitant 
would,  in  the  case  of  a  railroad,  exasperate  the  people  along 
the  line,  endanger  the  railroad,  and  suggest  the  building  of  a 
competing  line.  Another  limit  is  that  charges  must  not  be  so 
high  as  to  weight  too  heavily  the  different  kinds  of  business 
along  the  road ;  for  this  would  depress  business  here  and 
stimulate  it  elsewhere,  and  other  lines  of  transportation  would 
gain,  while  the  extortionate  one  would  lose.  But,  in  spite  of 
those  limitations,  there  are  monopoly  and  excessive  charges. 
While  such  charges  cannot  be  maintained  throughout  the 
entire  line  including  the  termini  and  way  stations,  they  may  be 
maintained  at  some  of  the  intermediate  points — at  most  of 
them,  perhaps.  Extortion  is  practiced  on  individuals  and 
places,  but  usually  not  on  all  individuals  and  places  alike. 
The  railroad  management  may,  out  of  pure  wantonness  or 
malice,  crush  out  individuals  and  villages  b}*  putting  up  rates 
against  them.  It  may  build  up  favored  individuals  or  places 
by  giving  them  preferential  rates.  Both  these  forms  of  busi- 
ness iniquity  have  been  largely  practiced,  secretly  for  the  most 
part,  though  a  good  deal  of  this  kind  of  management  has  been 
brought  to  light. 

36.  PERSONAL  DISCRIMINATION.  —  Discrimination  in  favor 
of  particular  business  houses  has  largely  taken  the  form  of 
rebates.  It  was  by  means  of  rebates  that  the  Standard  Oil 
Company  was  able  to  break  down  all  opposition  and  become  one 
of  the  greatest  and  worst  of  monopolies.  It  was  shown  that 
$10,000,000  was,  in  this  way,  paid  back  to  this  company  in 
sixteen  months.  The  rate  to  the  seaboard  was  twenty-five 
cents  a  barrel,  when,  at  the  rate  charged  for  like  goods,  it 
should  have  been  one  dollar  and  twenty-five  cents  per  barrel. 
All  the  trunk  lines  were  in  the  contract,  and  the  deficit  in  profits 
thus  caused  had  to  be  made  good  by  higher  charges  on  other 
freight.  The  New  York  Central  charged  forty-five  cents  per 
can  of  milk  weighing  ninety  pounds,  for  an  average  distance 


Sec.  36.~\  PERSONAL  DISCRIMINATION.  89 

of  sixty-five  miles.  This  was  forty  times  as  much  as  the 
freight  on  an  equal  weight  of  Standard  oil  for  an  equal  dis- 
tance, and  was  equivalent  to  ten  dollars  per  barrel  of  330  Ibs. 
for  400  miles.  The  milk  men  were  not  as  good  at  bargaining 
with  the  railroad  as  the  oil  men  were ;  and  they  got  a  reduc- 
tion of  rates  only  through  the  action  of  the  railroad  commis- 
sion. 

The  Standard  Oil  monopoly  was  managed  by  a  combination 
of  railroad  men  and  oil  refiners,  and  was  able  to  break  down 
all  competition  and  amass  its  millions  at  the  cost  of  every 
household  in  which  a  kerosene  lamp  was  used.  It  was  a  suc- 
cessful conspiracy  against  the  general  interests  of  the  public 
for  the  pecuniary  benefit  of  a  few  individuals,  some  of  whom, 
not  content  with  the  power  and  consequence  which  great 
wealth  gives,  have  entered  another  field,  to  bestow  political 
power  and  honors  upon  favorites. 

The  like  preferential  rates  have  been  given  to  coal  and  grain 
dealers,  enabling  them  to  take  possession  of  the  market  and 
destroy  competition.  Several  notable  houses  have  been  built 
up  in  this  way.  At  one  time,  the  New  York  Central  had  over 
"  six  thousand  different  contracts,  varying  in  the  most  arbitrary 
manner  from  the  published  schedule  for  the  carriage  of  local 
freight"  (Sterne).  More  than  half  the  business  between  New 
York  and  points  on  the  New  York  Central  has  in  this  way 
been  carried  on  at  less  than  the  published  rates.  These 
special  rates  were  governed  by  no  rule  of  business  or  equity, 
but  by  favortism  and  caprice  pure  and  simple.  Jesse  Hoyt  & 
Co.  and  David  Dows  &  Co.,  of  New  York,  grain  firms,  had  a 
monopoly  of  the  market  in  the  Winter  of  1877  by  means  of 
reduced  rates  from  the  West.  Shoelkop  &  Mathews,  millers 
of  Niagara  Falls,  had  special  rates  on  the  New  York  Central, 
and  were  thus  enabled  to  beat  competitors.  Even  the  shorter 
distance  from  Rochester  to  New  York  did  not  protect  the 
mills  at  Rochester,  and  the  consumers  did  not  get  the  advan- 
tage which  the  less  cost  of  carriage  from  the  nearer  city  should 
have  afforded.  Freight  from  Cincinnati  to  New  York  had  been 


90  MONOPOLY  ADVANTAGES.  [Chap.  V. 

fifteen  cents  per  hundred,  and  dealers  bad  made  their  calcula- 
tions and  given  their  orders  on  this  basis,  when  suddenly 
freights  were  raised  by  a  power  as  inexorable  as  that  of  an 
earthquake,  to  thirty  and  one-half  cents  per  hundred.  This 
took  the  profits,  and  goods  already  ordered  had  to  lay  dead  in 
the  warehouses.  A  member  of  the  New  York  board  of  trade 
could  not  secure  an  abatement  of  the  extortion,  although,  at 
the  same  time,  favorites  who  had  been  notified  of  the  coming 
change,  were  still  shipping  under  special  contract  at  the  old 
rates. 

By  charging  twice  as  much  for  carrying  sugar  from  the  East 
to  the  West  as  from  the  West  to  the  East,  the  railroads  have 
built  up  the  sugar  monopoly  of  Sir  Claus  Spreckles  of  San 
Francisco.  The  discrimination  thus  made  protected  the  sugar 
trade  of  one  man  with  the  Sandwich  Islands,  and  enabled  him 
to  amass  an  immense  fortune  at  the  expense  of  his  customers, 
and  to  secure  a  title  from  king  Kalakaua.  Is  this  the  free- 
dom of  competition  and  fairness  in  dealing  which  results, 
when  the  railroad  management  is  let  alone  ? 

Preferential  rates  may  be  given  to  personal  favorites  or  to 
large  shippers  to  secure  all  their  business,  and  this  enables  the 
favored  shippers  to  undersell  others  and  drive  them  out  of 
business.  Large  dealers  in  this  way  destroy  the  smaller  dealers, 
and  get  rid  of  competition.  Thus  railroad  mismanagement  has 
built  up  business  monopolies  by  discrimination,  such  as  only 
a  lawless  and  conscienceless  monopoly  could  make.  It  is  the 
case  of  a  big  monopoly  breeding  little  ones  ;  and  these  smaller 
ones  sometimes  grow  to  be  very  large  ones,  as  in  the  case 
of  the  Standard  Oil  Company  and  the  Spreckles  Sugar  House. 

37.  LOCAL  DISCRIMINATION. — The  following  are  samples 
of  discriminations  against  places,  the  figures  in  each  case 
relating  to  the  same  line.  Charges  are  greater  from  St.  Louis 
to  Palestine,  Texas,  than  to  Galveston,  two  hundred  miles 
further ;  greater  also  from  Buffalo  to  New  York  than  from 
Chicago  to  New  York.  Freight  on  a  barrel  of  flour  from  St. 
Louis  to  Baltimore  is  88  cents,  but  from  Carlyle,  a  station  forty- 


Sec.  57.]  LOCAL  DISCRIMINATION.  91 

seven  miles  nearer  Baltimore,  one  dollar ;  from  Rochester  to 
New  York,  30  cents  per  barrel,  but  from  Milwaukee  to  New 
York,  three  times  the  distance,  20  cents  per  barrel.  From 
Memphis  to  New  Orleans,  freight  per  bale  of  cotton,  one  dollar; 
but  for  two-thirds  this  distance,  from  "Winona  to  New  Orleans, 
three  dollars  and  twenty-five  cents  per  bale.  From  New  York 
to  Atlanta,  one  dollar  per  hundred,  but  from  New  York  to 
New  Orleans,  several  hundred  miles  further,  70  cents  per 
hundred.  Four  hundred  dollars  is  charged  per  car  for  hard- 
ware from  Chicago  to  Lincoln  Station,  Oregon,  but  only  two 
hundred  dollars  from  Chicago  to  Portland,  one  hundred  miles 
further.  From  Chicago  to  Virginia  City,  $800  per  car,  but 
only  $300  to  San  Francisco,  600  miles  further.  From  Council 
Bluffs  to  Chicago,  500  miles,  freight  per  bushel  corn,  eight 
cents  ;  from  Des  Moines,  half  the  distance,  eleven  cents.  When 
corn  was  15  cents  per  bushel  at  Central  City,  Nebraska,  it  cost 
18  cents  per  bushel  to  get  it  to  Chicago  ;  and  when  selling  for 
still  less  at  Wichita,  Kansas,  it  cost  27  cents  per  bushel  to 
deliver  it  in  Chicago.  Freight  on  coal  from  the  mines  to  York 
one  dollar  and  fifty  cents  per  ton  more  than  to  Baltimore,  60 
miles  further.  During  1878  and  1879,  coal  sold  to  the  con- 
sumer in  New  York  at  about  three  dollars  and  twenty -five  cents 
per  short  ton.  The  coal  roads  formed  a  pool,  and  prices  were 
raised  to  about  six  dollars  per  ton  to  the  consumer.  A  legis- 
lative investigation  proved  that  $3.25  to  $3.50  per  ton  was  a 
fair  price  to  the  consumer  in  New  York ;  and  yet  there  are 
journalistic  and  other  authorities  who  inform  us  that  the  best 
thing  we  can  do  is  just  to  let  the  railroads  alone.  When  rail- 
road men  take  on  airs  about  the  complication  of  their  affairs, 
which  only  experts  like  themselves  can  understand  and 
manage,  they  might  be  called  on  to  explain  a  case  like  the 
following  :  Mr.  W.  W.  Mack,  of  Rochester,  instead  of  shipping 
his  edge  tools  direct,  sent  them  first  to  New  York,  whence  they 
passed  back  by  way  of  Rochester  to  Cincinnati  and  St.  Louis, 
at  a  saving  in  the  one  case  of  14  cents  per  hundred,  and  in  the 
other  of  18  cents  per  hundred.  In  this  case  the  railroad 


92  MONOPOLY  ADVANTAGES.  [Chap.  V. 

managers  illustrated  the  deep  mysteries  of  railroading  by 
carrying  freight  700  miles  for  14  to  18  cents  per  hundred  less 
than  nothing. 

38.  VIEWS  OF  REPRESENTATIVE  MEN. — Mr.  Clardy  of  Mis- 
souri, a  member  of  the  House  Committee  on  Commerce,  be- 
lieved the  committee  to  be  "  of  one  mind  as  to  the  existence 
of  facts  authorizing  if  not  demanding  legislative  action  for  the 
protection  of  the  people  from  the  growing  exactions  of  railroad 
companies."  Mr.  Oscar  Turner,  in  a  speech  in  the  House, 
December  10,  1884,  having  stated  the  evils  of  railroad  mis- 
management to  be  charging  unreasonable  rates,  discriminating 
between  individuals  and  between  communities,  destroying 
competition  by  pooling,  conceding  unjust  privileges  to  favorites, 
and  discriminating  by  a  system  of  rebates  and  drawbacks, 
affirmed  that  "  These  are  the  evils  said  to  exist,  and  that 
affect  the  country,  and  no  member  on  this  floor  has  had  the 
hardihood  to  den}r  that  these  evils  do  exist  and  need  a 
remcd}"  at  the  hands  of  Congress."  Mr.  Long,  of  Massachu- 
setts, speaking  of  complaints  of  unjust  discriminations  by 
special  rebates  and  drawbacks,  building  up  and  breaking  down 
at  the  caprice,  interest,  or  malice  of  railroad  companies,  added : 
"And,  Mr.  Speaker,  these  complaints  have  in  too  many  cases 
been  well  founded.  Grossest  injustice  has  been  done.  Certain 
shippers  have  had  undue  preferences.  Certain  others  have 
suffered  loss  by  unjust  discriminations.  Certain  places  have 
withered  in  their  local  prosperity  from  unequal  rates,  and 
certain  others  have  been  favored  and  stimulated  by  special  in- 
dulgences. This  evil,  so  far  as  it  is  involved  in  interstate 
commerce,  we  are  in  duty  bound  to  meet."  Messrs.  Warner 
(Ohio),  Findlay  (Maryland),  Senator  Cullom  (Illinois),  and 
others,  regard  unjust  discriminations  by  railroads  the  chief 
abuse  of  their  power  as  public  carriers,  and  that  which  most 
needs  regulation.  Even  so  marked  an  apologist  for  railroad 
management  as  Mr.  Horr  (Michigan)  recognizes  "  the  inequali- 
ties and  unjust  discriminations  of  the  carrying  trade."  Senator 
Sherman  (Ohio)  said,  "That  Congress  ought  to  legislate  upon 


Sec.  38."]          VIEWS  OP  REPRESENTATIVE  MEN.  93 

this  subject  is  manifest  to  everybody."  Senator  Harrison 
(Indiana)  said  :  "  Mr.  President,  I  do  not  stop  to  prove  the 
existence  of  these  evils.  They  are  confessed  of  all  fair  men.  I 
do  not  stop  to  prove,  for  proof  is  not  needed,  that  the  railroad 
companies  by  these  discriminations  between  individuals  and 
between  localities,  and  by  the  unrestrained  exercise  of  the 
power  to  establish  rates,  have  assumed  and  do  now  exercise  a 
most  dangerous  and  unwarranted  control  over  the  commerce 
of  the  country."  Even  Senator  Brown  (Georgia),  great  rail- 
roader that  he  is,  and  biased  to  the  last  degree  by  his  railroad 
interests,  admits,  nevertheless,  that  there  are  abuses  in  railroad 
management  which  should  be  corrected  by  legislation  :  "  But 
it  is  said  there  are  abuses  in  the  railroad  system  which  cannot 
be  justified.  That  is  doubtless  so ;  abuses  will  creep  into 
every  great  system  where  great  interests  are  at  stake,  and  it  is 
the  duty  of  wise  legislators,  as  far  as  it  lies  in  their  power,  to 
correct  such  abuses." 

President  Arthur,  in  his  message,  December  4,  1883,  recog- 
nized the  existence  of  evils  in  railroad  management  which 
State  laws  could  not  reach,  and  stated  that  Congress  should 
go  to  the  extent  of  its  constitutional  authority  to  "  protect  the 
people  at  large  in  their  interstate  traffic  against  acts  of  in- 
justice which  the  State  governments  are  powerless  to  prevent." 
In  June  following,  the  National  Republican  Convention  at 
Chicago  put  this  into  its  platform  :  "  The  principle  of  the 
public  regulation  of  railroad  corporations  is  a  wise  and  salu- 
tary one  for  the  protection  of  all  classes  of  people,  and  we 
favor  legislation  that  shall  prevent  unjust  discrimination  and 
excessive  charges  for  transportation,  and  that  shall  prove  to 
the  people  and  to  the  railways  alike  the  fair  and  equal  pro- 
tection of  the  law." 

I  will  conclude  these  extracts  with  one  from  Mr.  Charles 
Francis  Adams,  than  whom  there  is  no  higher  authority  on 
the  subject.  In  an  address  before  the  House  Committee  on 
Commerce,  speaking  of  railroad  abuses,  he  said  :  "  I  will  not 
stop  to  dwell  upon  them  or  to  denounce  them.  It  is  not 


94  MONOPOLY  ADVANTAGES.  [Chap.  V. 

necessary  to  do  so,  for  I  hold  them  to  be  proven  and  their 
existence  notorious.  The  record  is  full  of  evidence  on  the 
subject.  We  all  know  that  discriminations  in  railroad  treat- 
ment and  charges  do  exist  between  individuals  and  between 
places.  We  all  know  that  railroad  tariffs  fluctuate  wildly,  not 
only  in  different  years,  but  in  different  seasons  of  the  same 
year.  We  know  that  certain  large  business  firms — the  levia- 
thans of  modern  trade — can  and  do  dictate  their  own  terms 
between  rival  corporations,  while  the  small  concern  must 
accept  the  best  terms  it  can  get.  It  is  beyond  dispute  that 
business  is  carried  hither  and  thither — to  this  point,  away 
from  that  point,  and  through  the  other  point — not  because  it 
would  naturally  go  to,  away  from,  or  through  those  points,  but 
because  rates  are  made  on  an  artificial  basis  and  to  serve 
ulterior  ends.  In  regard  to  these  things  I  consider  the  existing 
system  nearly  as  bad  as  any  system  can  be.  Studying  its 
operations  as  I  have  long  and  patiently,  I  am-  ready  to  repeat 
now  what  I  have  repeatedly  said  before,  that  the  most  sur- 
prising thing  about  it  to  me  is  that  the  business  community 
sustains  itself  under  such  conditions.  The  first  principles 
of  law  governing  common  carriers  are  habitually  violated. 
Special  contracts,  covering  long  periods  of  time,  are  made 
every  day  with  heavy  shippers,  under  which  the  common 
carrier,  whose  first  duty  is  to  serve  all  equally,  gives  to  certain 
parties  a  practical  control  of  the  markets.  There  is  thus 
neither  equality  nor  system,  law  nor  equity,  in  the  matter 
of  railroad  charges.  A  complete  change  in  this  respect  is  a 
condition  precedent  to  any  just  and  equitable  system  of  rail- 
road transportation." 

We  have  given  very  few  facts  of  the  many  that  might  be 
given  to  prove  abuses  in  railroad  management.  We  have 
quoted  very  few  opinions  of  senators,  and  congressmen,  and 
others,  that  might  be  quoted  on  the  urgent  need  of  regulating 
interstate  commerce  by  national  legislation.  The  evidence  is 
overwhelming  ;  then,  why  has  nothing  been  done^?  The  great 
reason  is,  because  there  is  a  power  in  this  country  fully  deter- 


Sec.  89.]  EXCUSES  FOR  INACTION.  95 

mined  that  nothing  shall  be  done.  This  power  employs  the  best 
legal  talent  of  the  country,  and  gets  as  many  members  with  the 
railroad  bias  into  the  Senate  and  House  as  possible.  The 
lawyers  labor  with  the  committees,  and  the  "  friendly "  mem- 
bers labor  with  Congress  ;  wherefore  it  appears  that  this  is  not 
wholly  a  "  government  of  the  people,  by  the  people,  and  for 
the  people." 

39.  EXCUSES  FOR  INACTION.  —  "While  admitting  that  there 
is  need  of  regulation,  some  congressmen  express  themselves 
as  feeling  very  tender  toward  the  railroads  on  account  of  their 
great  usefulness  to  the  people.  This  is  the  far-fetched  reason 
of  a  bias  to  quiet  the  desire  for  action  against  railroad 
abuses.  The  railroads  are  not  personal  beings  whose  short- 
comings should  be  overlooked,  because  they  have  contributed 
so  much  to  the  general  prosperity  of  the  country.  Most  who 
now  manage  the  railroads,  and  those  most  guilty  of  indefen- 
sible methods,  are  people  who  have  paid  out  little  money  and 
made  small  personal  sacrifice  to  build  up  railroads.  A  very 
large  percentage  of  the  money  which  has  actually  been  paid 
out  for  the  construction  of  railroads  has  been  totally  lost  to 
those  who  advanced  it,  and  they  are  now  out  of  the  railroad 
business.  Many  of  the  present  owners  of  railroads  have 
secured  them  by  the  process  of  wrecking — have  bought  them 
up  under  foreclosure  on  the  best  of  terms.  The  gentlemen 
who  have  bought  and  now  manage,  are  in  no  particular  need 
of  sympathy.  They  have  acquired  fortunes  from  railroads, 
and  have  not,  as  it  is  assumed,  laid  out  fortunes  on  them. 
Senator  Brown,  in  his  speech  alread}^  quoted  from,  gave  a  list  of 
bankrupt  roads  in  Georgia,  in  which  the  original  stockholders 
lost  everything ;  and  he  explained  it  as  a  result  of  popular 
clamor  for  cheap  freights.  Only  think  of  popular  clamor  for- 
cing cheap  rates  and  bankrupting  railroads  !  Further  on  in  the 
same  speech,  he  explained  that  the  weaker  roads  were  beaten 
by  deadly  competition  and  then  absorbed  by  the  stronger  com- 
panies. The  people  who  are  now  managing  the  roads,  are  not 
managing  them  for  the  public  good — they  are  not  remarkable 


96  MONOPOLY  ADVANTAGES.  [.Chap.  V. 

for  altruism  ; — the  public  good  is  a  mere  incident,  and  the  man- 
agers are  scheming  for  their  own  profits  solely.  As,  in  many 
instances,  they  now  hold  and  control  what  other  people  have 
lost,  it  is  a  precious  bit  of  pretense  to  bespeak  sj-mpathy  for 
present  management  on  account  of  the  good  railroads  arc  doing, 
and  of  the  losses  early  investors  have  suffered. 

Some  congressmen  wish  large  liberties  reserved  for  the  rail- 
roads to  build  up  struggling  industries.  A  case  was  used  for 
illustration,  in  which  freight  was  earned  at  a  loss  to  encour- 
age the  exportation  of  staves !  It  was  thought,  too,  that 
poor  or  out-of-the-way  mines  should  be  favored  on  rates,  so 
they  might  be  worked  with  profit  1  A  portion  of  the  American 
mind  has  become  so  thoroughly  imbued  with  the  bias  of 
"  protection,"  that,  not  only  the  government,  but  all-powerful 
railroads  are  invoked  to  help  unprofitable  industries  at  the 
expense  of  others.  The  trouble  with  the  unrestrained  power 
of  railroads  to  discriminate  is  that  it  is  more  apt  to  be  used 
for  selfish  than  benevolent  ends,  and  the  strong  get  the  help 
rather  than  the  weak. 

A  member  of  Congress  largely  interested  in  railroads  stood 
in  his  place,  and  predicted  that  the  Reagan  method  of  dealing 
with  railroads  would  be  inoperative,  because  the}*  would 
ostentatiously  break  through  its  provisions.  They  would 
obstruct  it  in  the  courts,  and,  if  necessary,  would  issue  a 
sovereign  decree  that  every  engine  should  remain  in  its  round- 
house, and  traffic  and  travel  cease,  till  the  power  of  this  nation 
should  be  so  humbled,  that  the  author  of  the  bill  would  be  glad 
to  ask  a  suspension  of  the  rules  to  move  for  the  repeal  of  his 
own  law.  And  thus  would  the  corporations  triumph  over  the 
people  according  to  the  "  principles  of  nature ! "  This  was  of 
course  mere  bombast,  but  bombast  not  without  meaning,  and 
apparently  of  great  interest  to  fellow-members  who  crowded 
about  the  speaker  to  hear  the  precious  words  as  they  fell  from 
his  lips.  Here  was  betrayed  the  contempt  of  a  railroad  man  for 
the  power  of  law  when  pitted  against  the  power  of  railroads. 
There  was  no  attempt  to  conceal  the  bias  that  regards  the 


Sec.  39.]  EXCUSES  FOE  INACTION.  97 

country  at  large  as  inferior  and  secondary  to  corporate  power ; 
and,  while  it  was  not  pretended  that  there  are  no  abuses  to 
correct,  it  was  openly  proclaimed  that  their  perpetrators  are 
too  powerfully  entrenched  in  the  inevitable  order  of  things  to 
be  successfully  dealt  with  by  any  agency  of  the  government. 

It  is  hardly  ever  mentioned  in  Congress,  but  it  has  currency 
elsewhere,  that  the  railroads  already  carry  freight  so  cheaply, 
that  it  is  best  not  to  meddle  with  them.  Because  the  baker 
adds  more  to  the  price  of  bread  than  the  railroad  does,  we  had 
better  first  regulate  the  bakers,  and  then,  if  the  powerful  rail- 
road magnates  will  permit  us,  we  may  try  our  hand  at  regula- 
ting the  railroads.  It  is  true  that  when  railroads  have  had  to 
compete  with  one  another  and  with  waterways  at  terminal 
points,  as,  for  example,  from  Chicago  to  New  York,  freights 
are  low ;  but  it  is  not  true  that  freights  are  always  or  even  gen- 
erally fair  and  reasonable,  where  railroads  have  their  own 
way.  They  take  what  the  traffic  will  bear.  It  is  true  that 
transportation  by  rail  is  becoming  constantly  cheaper.  This 
has  taken  place  through  improved  facilities  and  greater  econo- 
mies in  the  means  of  transportation.  It  is  due  to  the  greater 
unity  of  method,  and  the  larger  amount  of  business  done. 
The  public  should  receive  benefit  from  such  improvements, 
and  the  reduction  of  rates  affords  no  excuse  for  the  tolerance 
of  abuses. 

The  ventilation  of  railroad  abuses  has  done  something  to 
correct  them ;  and  the  legal  regulation  attempted  in  twenty- 
four  States  of  the  Union  has  very  materially  improved  the 
moral  behavior  of  railroads  as  common  carriers.  As  mistaken 
in  details  as  no  doubt  much  of  the  so-called  granger  legislation 
was,  it  helped  largely,  as  Mr.  Charles  Francis  Adams  has 
stated,  to  bring  railroad  managers  to  a  sense  of  their  amenabil- 
ity to  control  in  the  interests  of  justice  by  a  power  greater 
than  theirs.  But  the  States  can  do  nothing  for  interstate 
commerce  ;  and  this  the  general  government  is  in  duty  bound 
to  regulate  and  protect.  It  is  true  that  butchers  and  bakers 
are  oftentimes  thrifty  men  ;  but  under  competition  there  is  less 


98  MONOPOLY  ADVANTAGES.  [Chap,  V. 

danger  of  extortion  than  under  monopoly,  and  there  is  never 
occasion  for  regulation  under  honest  competition.  The  village 
butcher  is  a  despot  only  when  he  is  intrenched  in  monopol}-. 
It  is  notorious  that  several  of  our  railroaders  have  increased 
their  worldly  possessions  one,  two,  three,  four,  or  five  millions 
a  year,  while  bakers  and  butchers  have  done  nothing  of  the 
sort,  their  power  of  taxation  being  altogether  too  limited ; 
whence  it  is  suggested  plainly  enough  that  railroaders  have 
opportunities  which  bakers  and  butchers  have  not.  This 
Atkinsonian  method  of  diverting  attention  from  the  real  ques- 
tion, is,  indeed,  trivial  enough ;  and  yet  is  its  author  greatly 
commended  as  an  authority  in  economical  literature  by  the 
powerful  interests  he  so  loyally  serves. 

One  of  the  ways  which  senators  and  congressmen  have  of 
making  themselves  feel  complacent  over  their  inaction,  is  the 
affectation  of  conservatism.  Nearly  all  want  to  do  something, 
but  it  is  so  easy  to  make  mistakes  and  do  more  harm  than 
good,  that  it  is  in  the  very  nature  of  wisdom  herself  that  their 
labors  shall  have  no  result.  It  is  true  that  it  is  ver}'  easy  in  a 
complicated  practical  matter  like  this  to  do  more  harm  than 
good ;  and  it  is  positively  certain  that  no  good  in  such  a 
matter  can  be  done  without  some  seed  of  evil  being  ready  to 
germinate  therein,  so  that  if  nothing  is  done  till  it  is  certain 
to  be  wholly  good,  there  will  never  be  anything  done,  and  the 
present  evils  will  be  allowed  to  gather  strength  with  the  3*ears 
till  the}'  can  be  weakened  and  broken  only  under  the  violent 
hand  of  revolution.  Suppose  there  are  some  errors  in  a  law 
so  urgently  demanded  ;  they  are  not  irrevocable,  and  emenda- 
tion and  repeal  are  always  within  easy  reach.  Such  a  measure 
must  necessarily  be  largely  tentative  at  first.  Wisdom  comes 
to  mankind  through  honest  endeavor  with  its  mistakes,  rather 
than  through  the  owl-like  solemnities  of  unbroken  meditation 
with  no  practical  test  for  its  errors.  If  all  the  members  of  the 
House  had  been  so  exacting  as  to  require  something  like  per- 
fection, the  Reagan  bill  would  not  have  passed ;  for  probably 
one-third  of  those  who  voted  for  it  believed  that  it  attempted 


Sec.  40.~\         OTHER  MONOPOLIES — AND  "PARASITES."  99 

too  much,  and  that  some  of  its  provisions — to  say  nothing  of 
the  extraneous  matter  that  was  thrust  in — were  not  the  best 
possible.  Man}-  voted  for  it  who  would  have  preferred  a  com- 
mission, with  less  rigidity  of  detail.  I  am  free  to  say  that, 
while  I  am  in  entire  sympathy  with  this  view  of  the  subject,  I 
certainly  commend  gentlemen  for  yielding  their  preferences  so 
far  as  to  vote  for  the  Reagan  bill  as  the  best  thing  it  was  pos- 
sible to  get.  And,  if  senators,  instead  of  working  at  a  hope- 
less bill  of  their  own,  had  gone  at  once  to  perfecting  the 
House  bill  in  accordance  with  more  conservative  ideas,  a  law 
might  have  been  enacted  at  that  session  for  the  regulation  of 
interstate  commerce.  But  to  disregard  the  House  bill  after 
it  had  passed,  and  go  on  working  at  the  Senate  bill,  as  was 
done,  was  simply  to  defeat  present  legislation  on  the  subject, 
and  senators  very  well  knew  this,  and  none  better  than  those 
who  compelled  the  Senate  to  take  this  course.  This  phenom- 
enon the  country  was  called  to  witness  after  a  struggle  in 
Congress  of  ten  years'  duration  for  an  abatement  of  railroad 
abuses.  Let  the  reader  decide  what,  under  such  circum- 
stances, the  people  owe  to  themselves. 

40.  SOME  OTHER  MONOPOLIES — AND  "  PARASITES." — What 
is  true  of  railroad  management  is  true  in  a  general  way  of 
management  by  express,  telegraph,  and  gas  companies.  They 
are  monopolies  for  the  most  part  with  power  to  tax  the  people 
far  more  than  what  would  be  a  fair  compensation  for  their 
services.  In  many  cases  their  stock  has  been  largely  watered 
and  enormous  profits  have  been  made,  and,  like  railroads,  they 
all  resist  control.  "Where  there  is  competition  between  ex- 
press lines  at  their  termini  and  on  parallel  roads,  shippers 
have  far  better  chances  for  fair  dealing  than  where  there  is  no 
competition.  Telegraph  lines  get  rid  of  competition  by  absorb- 
ing the  new  lines ;  and  the  people  are  everywhere  compelled 
to  pay  more  for  the  transmission  of  messages  than  they  ought 
to  pay.  There  should  be  regulation,  or  the  government  should 
own  and  operate  its  own  telegraph  lines  in  the  interest  of  the 
great  body  of  the  people.  What  is  so  well  done  in  Europe 
10 


100  MONOPOLY  ADVANTAGES.  {.Chap.  V. 

through  government  ownership  and  control,  will  probably  be 
done  here  by  and  by.  Telephone  companies  are  monopolies 
by  the  nature  of  their  business,  and  they,  too,  are  likely  to  use 
their  power  for  extortionate  gains. 

When  rival  gas  companies  are  formed,  it  is  said  that  gas  is 
apt  to  be  higher  rather  than  lower  than  before.  There  is  more 
capital  now  in  the  business,  and  capital  must  have  its  profits, 
if  not  under  competition,  why  then  under  combination.  There 
is  possibly  no  waj'  to  protect  gas  consumers  but  by  the  legal 
supervision  of  rates  ;  and  yet  it  is  almost  impossible  to  bring 
this  about.  A  bill  with  this  object  in  view  was  defeated  in 
the  New  York  legislature  last  spring — defeated  through  cor- 
ruption by  the  power  of  a  class  interest.  And  thus  the  people 
do  not  govern  in  States  any  more  than  in  the  nation. 

The  gas  combination  of  New  York  city,  in  1879,  well  illus- 
trates the  power  of  one  man  or  a  few  men  with  franchises  in 
their  hands,  to  extort  from  the  many.  Under  competition  gas 
had  been  selling  at  about  $1.00,  when  the  pool  was  arranged 
to  sell  at  $2.00  ;  but  one  stockholder  in  control  of  one  of  the 
companies  insisted  on  putting  up  the  price  to  $2.25.  He  carried 
his  point  and  with  it  secured  for  the  pool  out  of  the  gas  con- 
sumers of  the  city  one-half  million  dollars  per  annum.  In 
England,  whose  people  we  pity  for  their  want  of  political 
freedom,  there  is  State  regulation  with  satisfactory  results, 
and  gas  consumers  are  protected  against  extortion  ;  in  this 
country  of  spread-eagle  liberty,  a  small  but  powerful  class  dic- 
tates what  the  law  shall  be  or  shall  not  be. 

They  tell  us  railroads  earn  less  than  three  per  cent.  Gravely 
they  tell  this  without  qualification,  and  expect  us  to  accept  it 
as  final.  But  this  is  earned  on  water  as  well  as  on  cash  capital, 
with  nearly  five  per  cent  besides  to  pay  on  indebtedness. 
Poor's  figures  show  a  profit  of  about  nine  per  cent  on  actual 
cost.  This  is  thrift  beyond  the  average  ;  but  if  this  were  all, 
we  might  congratulate  railroaders  on  their  good  management, 
and  stand  it.  But  this  is  not  all.  Besides  the  enormous  sal- 
aries railroad  officers  pay  themselves,  their  roads  are  made  to 


SeC.  41^}   MONOPOLIES  WITHOUT  STATE  FRANCHISES.      101 

support  a  number  of  parasites  that  take  blood,  such  as  express 
companies,  fast  freight  lines,  palace  car  companies,  elevator 
companies,  stock  yard  companies.  Senator  Sherman  said  in 
the  Senate,  February  3,  1885 :  "  Within  the  twenty  years 
since  the  railroads  have  formed  their  connecting  lines,  they 
have  been  eaten  to  death  by  parasites.  Every  railroad  has 
had  its  little  inner  ring,  and  all  sorts  of  cunning  schemes 
and  devices  have  been  made  and  entered  into  not  only  to  cheat 
the  people,  but  to  cheat  their  own  stockholders.  I  doubt  if 
there  is  a  single  railroad  in  our  country  that  has  not  in  it  and 
about  it,  composed  of  its  officers,  some  of  these  parasites 
which  prevent  proper  dividends  from  being  paid  to  stockhold- 
ers." Contracts  are  made  with  these  inside  organizations  so  as 
to  make  their  business  more  profitable  than  that  of  the  rail- 
road itself.  The  officers  of  the  road  stand  in  with  these  com- 
panies and  share  profits,  thus  pushing  the  interests  of  a  ring 
in  opposition  to  the  interests  of  the  road  they  manage ;  and 
thus  it  has  turned  out  that  while  the  road  was  becoming  bank- 
rupt, its  managers  were  becoming  prosperous,  and  both  stock- 
holders and  people  were  cheated.  Competition  regulates  such 
matters,  does  it  ? 

41.  MONOPOLIES  WITHOUT  STATE  FRANCHISES. — All  intel- 
ligent and  fair-minded  men  admit  that  a  business  transacted 
for  the  public  under  franchises  from  the  State,  should  be  kept 
well  in  hand  by  the  State,  in  order  that  its  privileges  may  not 
be  abused  and  the  public  wronged.  But  I  wish  to  call  atten- 
tion here  to  kinds  of  business  which  do  not  come  within  this 
categor}-.  Men  may  do  business  of  a  public  character  without 
any  franchises  from  the  State.  They  may  use  their  own 
private  capital,  and  by  purelj'  business  combinations  effectually 
fleece  the  people  for  personal  gain.  There  can  be  no  remedy 
by  competition  when  competition  is  circumvented.  There 
are,  perhaps,  at  the  present  time,  almost  one  hundred  in- 
dustries in  the  United  States  in  this  condition.  They  are 
controlled  by  rings  to  destroy  competition,  limit  production, 
and  compel  the  public  to  pay  monopoly  prices. 


102  MONOPOLY  ADVANTAGES.  [Chap.  V. 

President  Gowan  of  the  Reading  railroad  said  in  1875  be- 
fore a  committee  of  the  Penns}-lvania  Legislature  :  "  Every 
pound  of  rope  we  buy  for  our  vessels  and  for  our  mines  is 
bought  at  a  price  fixed  by  a  committee  of  the  rope  manufac- 
turers of  the  United  States.  Every  keg  of  nails,  every  paper 
of  tacks,  all  serews,  and  wrenches,  and  hinges,  the  boiler 
plates  of  our  locomotives,  are  never  bought  except  at  the 
prices  fixed  by  the  representatives  of  the  mills  that  manu- 
facture them.  Iron  beams  for  our  houses  or  your  bridges  can 
be  had  only  at  the  prices  agreed  upon  by  a  combination  of 
those  who  produce  them.  Fire  brick,  gas  pipe,  terra  cotta 
pipe  for  drainage,  ever}-  keg  of  powder  we  buy  to  blast  coal, 
are  purchased  under  the  same  arrangement  Ever}'  pane  of 
window  glass  in  this  house  was  bought  at  a  scale  of  prices 
established  exactly  in  the  same  manner.  White  lead,  galvan- 
ized sheet  iron,  hose,  and  belting,  and  files  are  bought  and  sold 
at  a  rate  determined  in  the  same  way." 

Lumbermen  limit  production  and  fix  prices,  and  the  rules 
are  good  as  far  away  as  Dakota  and  Manitoba.  On  the  Pacific 
slope,  the  lumber  trade  is  managed  in  the  same  way,  and  the 
retailers  are  bound  by  stringent  regulations.  Stockbuyers  at 
Chicago  combine  to  make  their  own  prices.  Vanderbilt,  Sloan 
and  Company  dictate  the  price  of  coal,  limiting  the  supply 
when  necessary  by  stopping  work  in  the  mines.  The  Western 
Anthracite  Coal  Association,  which  is  controlled  entirely  by 
the  large  railroads  and  mine-owners  of  Pennsylvania,  de- 
termines the  price  of  coal  for  the  West.  On  occasion  of  a 
coal  strike  in  1871,  private  miners  conceded  the  strikers' terms; 
but  the  railroads  put  up  freights  on  them  to  keep  them  out  of 
the  market,  and  coal  doubled  in  price.  In  the  fall  of  1884,  rail- 
road accommodations  were  refused  to  the  Hocking  Yalle}*  coal 
men  who  paid  the  laborers  their  price  and  kept  on  mining. 
There  are  combinations  to  regulate  the  production  and  prices 
of  coke,  anthracite  and  bituminous  coal.  The  match  combi- 
nation broke  down  all  competition  by  the  aid  of  the  tariff  and 
the  railroads.  Manufacturers  of  wall  paper,  of  wrapping  paper, 


Sec.  4L1   MONOPOLIES  WITHOUT  STATE  FRANCHISES.      103 

and  of  paper  for  script,  books,  and  newspapers,  all  have  asso- 
ciations to  regulate  production  and  prices.  With  the  same 
objects  in  view  there  is  a  National  Burial  Case  Association. 
The  quinine  manufacturers  of  the  world  have  tried  to  keep  up 
the  price  of  quinine.  Even  patent  medicines  are  subject  to 
combination  and  espionage.  Stamped  tinware  is  a  monopoly. 
The  barbed  wire  manufacturers  buy  their  material  without 
competition  among  themselves,  and  sell  at  their  own  prices. 
While  I  write,  the  agents  of  seventy  companies  manufacturing 
barbed  wire,  meet  at  Chicago,  arrange  a  pool,  and  put  up 
prices  15  cents  per  100  pounds.  Dairymen  have  tried  the 
virtues  of  combination,  and  spilled  their  milk  rather  than 
break  prices.  There  are  whiskey  and  beer  combinations,  and 
a  school  book  pool.  The  ice  men  and  fish  dealers  of  cities, 
millers  in  the  West,  and  quarrymen  generally  combine  with 
more  or  less  success  to  maintain  prices.  The  same  is  true 
of  the  manufacturers  of  sewer  pipe,  lamps,  potter}T,  glassware, 
shot,  sugar,  candy,  starch,  preserved  fruits,  glucose,  silks,  bun. 
ting,  rubber  goods,  salt,  lime,  even  chairs,  vapor  stoves,  har- 
vesting machines,  type,  wire  cloth,  brass  tubing  and  other 
brass  manufactures.  (North  American  Review,  June,  1884.) 

There  are  so  many  kinds  of  business  named  here  that  it  might 
seem  that  combination  were  general,  —  combination  neutral- 
izing combination  without  harm  to  an}'body.  But  it  is  not  so. 
Look  over  a  list  of  occupations  with  the  numbers  employed 
therein,  and  see.  Forty- four  out  of  every  hundred  people  in  the 
United  States  cultivate  the  soil,  and  they  cannot  concert  to 
limit  production  and  fix  prices.  Their  prices  are  fixed  for 
them  when  they  sell,  and  as  consumers  of  certain  goods  they 
must  pay  the  prices  set  by  a  secret  and  arbitrary^management. 
As  producers  they  compete  with  one  another,  as  consumers 
they  must  submit  in  many  things  to  the  dictation  of  business 
combinations,  and  thus  they  are  beaten  between  mutual  com- 
petition and  antagonistic  combination.  There  are  millions 
of  others  in  various  occupations  as  helpless  as  the  farmers. 
In  the  occupations  named  as  having  combined  to  limit  produc- 


104  MONOPOLY  ADVANTAGES.  [Chap.  V. 

tion  and  make  prices,  it  would  be  a  great  mistake  to  suppose 
that  all  who  work  in  them  are  benefited  by  the  combination  ; 
the  benefit  accrues  simply  to  the  few  who  manage  ;  and  by  the 
very  power  which  combination  gives,  these  few  take  tribute 
from  their  working  men  by  reduced  wages,  as  well  as  from 
their  customers  by  increased  prices.  Combination  is  a  double- 
headed  monster,  which  we  are  sure  would  be  less  offensive  in 
behavior  if  it  were  tamed. 

There  are  economists  who  endorse  the  action  of  these  rings 
as  legitimate.  At  any  rate,  there  are  economical  philosophers 
who  pretend  to  believe  that  the  law  of  competition  is  adequate 
for  the  regulation  of  all  businesses  and  industries.  The  rings 
simply  employ  the  economical  forces  according  to  opportunity 
to  push  their  own  interests,  and  "  that  is  what  ever}' body  docs, 
or  ought  to  do."  This  was  done  in  former  times  when  two 
men  met  on  the  road,  and  the  stronger  took  the  other's  purse. 

I  have  no  doubt  that  limiting  production,  if  done  with 
judgment  under  proper  motives,  would  be  a  good  thing  as  a 
means  of  avoiding  our  constantly  recurring  disturbances  in 
the  relations  of  supply  and  demand.  But  this  is  not  the  way 
in  which  the  limiting  is  done.  It  is  done  in  the  interest  of 
greed.  It  is  done  to  keep  up  prices  and  secure  large  profits 
without  regard  to  the  interests  of  either  laborers  or  con- 
sumers. How  is  it  that  the  steel  industry  in  this  country 
could  afford  to  pay  a  single  establishment,  the  Vulcan  Steel 
Mill  of  St.  Louis,  $400,000  to  stand  idle  ?  How  is  it  that  the 
Waverly  Sandstone  ring  can  afford  to  pay  quarries  thousands 
of  dollars — in  one  instance  I  learn  of,  $4,500  annually — to  do 
nothing  ?  How  could  American  salt  manufacturers  afford  to 
pay  a  large  annual  dead  rent  for  the  salt  works  along  the 
Kenawha  to  get  rid  of  competition  and  limit  production  ? 
How  could  the  Standard  Oil  Company  afford  to  buy  up  com- 
petitors and  dismantle  their  works?  In  these  instances  and 
others  of  like  character,  the  enterprising  gentlemen  could  well 
afford  to  destroy  property,  limit  business,  and  throw  laborers 
out  of  employment,  because  this  course  enabled  them  to  con- 


Sec.  4-7.]  MONOPOLY  WITHOUT  FRANCHISES.  105 

trol  the  wages  of  their  workmen  as  well  as  to  limit  production 
and  maintain  high  prices.  They  would  not  pay  out  their 
thousands  to  stop  works,  if  they  could  not  thereby  get  those 
thousands  back  with  good  profits  on  the  same.  At  whose 
expense,  however,  are  they  so  flush  ?  At  the  expense  of  con- 
sumers. The  consumers,  not  the  operators,  furnish  the  means 
with  which  to  buy  up  mills,  works,  quarries,  &c.,  and  stop 
production  therein.  This  additional  tax  is  paid  by  the  people 
to  minister  to  the  greed  of  the  scheming  few.  And  yet,  some 
economists  tell  us  that  all  this  is  properly  self-regulating  on 
the  deep-lying  principle  of  open  competition  and  free  con- 
tract. Competition  is  first  destro}Ted  and  then  prices  are  fixed 
by  secret  boards  with  an  absolute  power,  in  the  exercise  of 
which  there  is  no  recognition  of  mutual  contract.  Senator 
Bayard  once  made  a  slip  of  the  tongue  in  the  Senate  about  the 
freedom  of  contract  between  railroads  and  shippers,  and  the 
chastisement  inflicted  on  him  therefor  by  Senator  Vance  was 
calculated  to  excite  one's  commiseration  for  the  suffering 
senator.  Gentlemen  get  so  in  the  habit  of  prating  about  com- 
petition and  free  contract  that  they  give  their  words  no  care- 
ful thought,  and  they  deceive  themselves,  and  by  their  author- 
ity, in  this  case  really  so  worthless,  they  mislead  others.  The 
consumer  at  large  has  no  more  chance  on  the  principle  of  free 
contract  against  the  exactions  of  a  manufacturing  ring,  than 
the  common  shipper  has  on  the  same  principle  against  the 
exactions  of  a  railroad  ring.  The  cardinal  principles  of  polit- 
ical economy  are  first  outraged  and  beaten,  and  then  appeal  is 
made  for  justification  of  the  act  to  the  principles  of  political 
economy.  A  pretty  circle  is  this  to  chase  round  in  ! 

The  usual  proceeding  is  for  a  few  of  the  stronger  to  form  a 
combination,  and  then  undersell  till  the  weaker  are  compelled 
to  quit  business,  sell  out,  or  come  into  the  ring.  If  opposition 
starts  on  principles  of  competition,  it  is  beaten  in  like  man- 
ner, and  absorbed  and  driven  from  the  field.  This  has  been 
done  many  times.  The  big  and  strong  overpower  and  sub- 
ordinate the  small  and  weak.  This  is  done  by  the  law  that 


106  MONOPOLY  ADVANTAGES.  [Chap.  V. 

rules  among  beasts  in  the  forests,  except  that  among  men  there 
is  greater  power  of  combination  than  among  beasts ;  but  the 
result  is  the  same,  the  crushing  out  of  the  weaker  and  less 
fortunate.  It  is  only  a  new  form  of  the  law  of  might,  and 
under  it  there  is  no  recognition  of  a  moral  law  among  men 
other  than  prevails  among  brutes.  It  is  Darwinism  miscon- 
strued and  misplaced.  While  in  one  field  monopoly  by  the 
strong  results  in  good  to  the  race,  in  the  other  field  it  not  only 
crushes  competitors  but  weakens  others  b}*  abstracting  from 
their  economical  strength.  Those  rings  formed  and  combina- 
tions made  to  destroy  competition  and  the  freedom  of  contract, 
are  conspiracies  against  the  public — forms  of  misdoing  for 
which  there  should  be  some  remedy.  Orthodoxy  in  econo- 
mics may  lift  its  hands  in  holy  horror  at  the  idea  of  inter- 
fering with  the  business  methods  of  business  men.  But  we 
are  happily  not  without  precedent  for  such  interferences.  In 
an  opinion  delivered  by  Chief  Justice  "Waite  in  the  case  of 
Moore  vs.  Illinois,  he  names  a  number  of  occupations  which 
have  long  been  subjugated  to  legal  regulation  in  England  and 
in  the  United  States,  such  as  those  of  ferrymen,  common  car- 
riers, hackmen,  bakers,  millers,  wharfingers,  inn-keepers,  &c., 
and  he  believes  that  such  regulation  is  not  a  violation  of  any 
fundamental  principle  for  the  protection  of  private  property. 

The  State  of  Illinois  regulated  elevator  charges,  and  the  act 
has  been  confirmed  by  the  United  States  court.  The  Chicago 
elevators  had  no  franchises  and  were  built  with  private  capital? 
and  common  justice  as  well  as  common  good  has  been  sub- 
served by  regulating  their  charges.  Such  charges  are  now 
reasonable  at  Chicago,  while  at  Buffalo  and  New  York,  where 
not  regulated  by  the  State,  they  are  exorbitant,  being  under 
railroad  control  and  intended  to  weaken  rivalry  by  increasing 
the  cost  of  water  transportation  from  the  "West  to  the  seaboard. 
Elevators  work  for  the  public,  and  when  they  combine  to  get 
rid  of  competition  and  unduly  tax  commerce,  they  should  be 
subject  to  public  control.  Every  manufacturing  establishment 
works  for  the  public,  and  when  it  enters  a  ring  to  destro}'  com- 


Sec.  J$.~\    LETTING  THINGS  TAKE  THEIR  NATURAL  COURSE.      107 

petition  and  extort  undue  prices  from  consumers,  it  should  be 
subjected  to  some  kind  of  discipline  in  the  interest  of  com- 
mon justice  and  the  public  good.  It  may  be  a  question  what 
this  control  should  be  and  how  far  it  is  practicable. 


CHAPTER  VI. 
GOVERNMENTAL  INTERFERENCE. 

42.  LETTING  THINGS  TAKE  THEIR  NATURAL  COURSE. — There 
has  been  a  good  deal  said  from  time  to  time  about  "  letting 
things  take  their  natural  course,"  "  letting  the  problem  work 
itself  out  naturally."  I  can  understand  this,  when  it  has  refer- 
ence to  things  "in  a  state  of  nature."  But  what  do  we  mean 
by  things  in  a  state  of  nature  ?  "We  mean  that  man  is  not 
meddling  with  them ;  that  they  are  outside  of  his  sphere 
of  action,  and  in  consequence,  whatever  happens,  happens 
naturally.  But  as  soon  as  man  interferes,  the  character  of  the 
action  is  changed.  The  domesticated  grains,  grasses,  fruits, 
animals  have  not  taken  a  natural  course  of  development :  they 
have  all  been  modified  by  human  agenc}r.  How  then  are 
things  which  come  wholly  within  the  human  sphere  to  be 
regarded  as  taking  a  natural  course  ?  Man  is  all  the  time 
consciously  managing  them,  and  their  course  is  not  natural  at 
all.  It  is  true  that  man  moves  and  acts  in  accordance  with 
the  laws  of  his  being,  but  he  is  all  the  time  pretending  to 
reason  about  what  he  shall  do,  and  is  constantly  adopting  this 
course,  or  that  as  seems  to  him  best.  When  man  modifies  the 
development  of  a  plant  or  animal,  he  does  so  in  accordance 
with  the  laws  of  its  being,  consciously  taking  advantage  of  the 
same,  to  accomplish  the  end  in  view.  Then,  what  is  it  for 
things  within  the  sphere  of  human  action,  to  take  their  natural 
course  ? 


108  GOVERNMENTAL  INTERFERENCE.  {.Chap.  VL 

In  the  preceding  chapter  we  have  seen  how  business  rings 
manage  to  break  down  competition,  secure  monopoly,  and 
build  themselves  up  at  the  expense  of  their  costumers.  Is  this 
a  part  of  the  natural  course  we  are  to  let  things  take  ?  If  any 
thing  is  natural  in  the  human  sphere,  this  is,  since  it  takes 
place  by  the  tyranny  of  power  without  regard  to  the  require- 
ments of  equity.  It  is  the  triumph  of  the  unscrupulous  and 
strong  over  those  who  are  economical!}'  weaker,  but  who  may 
be  morally  better.  On  this  principle  the  distribution  of  the 
soil  of  the  conquered  by  the  victorious  chief  among  his  follow- 
ers is  in  the  natural  course  of  things.  The  success  of  the 
robber,  the  pirate,  and  slave  catcher  belongs  to  the  same  cate- 
gory; for  here  it  is  the  triumph  of  the  unscrupulous  and  strong 
over  those  who  are  physically  too  weak  to  resist  them.  All 
of  them  triumph  by  the  same  law — the  law  of  might — the  law 
that  prevails  in  the  woods  among  the  beasts.  It  makes  no 
difference  as  to  the  principle,  that  one  set  uses  horns,  teeth, 
and  claws,  another  set  the  club  or  blunderbuss,  and  the  other 
business  chicanery  and  aggressive  combination,  to  accomplish 
their  ends.  In  all  cases  it  is  the  abuse  of  power  by  which  one 
individual  or  class  oppresses  others,  and  if  the  one  is  to  pursue 
its  natural  course,  the  other  should  have  been  permitted  to  do 
so  on  the  same  logic  to  the  same  end.  But  robbers,  and 
pirates,  and  slavemongers  were  not  permitted  to  take  their 
natural  course  ;  they  were  resisted  one  way  or  another.  Why? 
For  the  protection  of  those  they  wronged.  Why  not  interfere 
to  prevent  the  taxation  of  the.  manjr  by  rings  and  companies  for 
the  benefit  of  the  few  whereby  fortunes  of  a  hundred  million 
arc  accumulated  in  a  few  years  ?  "  But,"  I  am  told,  "  the 
cases  are  not  parallel.  You  must  resist  the  organization  of 
rings  and  companies  by  counter-organization  ;  3*ou  must  trans- 
form monopoly  into  competition  by  voluntary  and  not  by  legal 
means.  The  field  is  open  and  the  race  free  to  all."  The  trouble 
with  this  theory  is,  that  the  monopoly  grows  stronger  and 
stronger  in  the  very  act  of  putting  down  one  competitor  after 
another  till  none  can  resist.  It  is  as  if  the  bandit  had  many 


SeC.  4%.]   LETTING  THINGS  TAKE  THEIR  NATURAL  COURSE.      109 

times  met  and  overcome  voluntary  opposition  and  so  enlarged 
and  knit  together  his  gang  as  to  defy  the  efforts  of  any  volun- 
tary force.  If  the  gang  had  grown  powerful  beating  and  driv- 
ing off  volunteers,  it  would  be  folly  to  leave  the  chances  of  its 
extermination  to  mere  volunteers.  Nothing  will  do  now  but 
the  regulars,  even  at  the  risk  of  not  letting  things  take  their 
natural  course.  Laissez  Faire  replies  :  "  It  would  be  an  unjust 
abridgement  of  liberty  to  interfere  with  the  methods  of  busi- 
ness men."  The  English  government  did  not  take  this  view 
of  the  case,  however,  when  it  suppressed  the  slave  trade  and 
slavery;  and  Mr.  Herbert  Spencer  says,  that  by  these  acts  the 
area  of  liberty  was  extended  (Man  vs.  State,  p.  4).  Cer- 
tainty it  was  ;  but  it  was  not  done  by  letting  things  take  their 
natural  course.  It  was  done  by  cutting  off  a  part  of  the  field 
which  had  hitherto  been  open  to  business  enterprise.  Inter- 
ference with  the  business  was  held  to  be  justifiable,  because 
the  business  had  come  to  be  regarded  as  wrong.  Now,  why 
might  not  the  tyranny  of  monopoly  rings  be  broken  in  the  in- 
terest of  justice,  as  the  tyranny  of  the  slave  trade  was  broken 
in  the  interest  of  freedom  ? 

"What  is  the  natural  course  of  things  ?  Nothing  takes  place 
except  under  resistance.  The  strongest  forces  prevail.  This 
is  true  in  the  human  sphere,  whether  the  force  is  exercised  by 
an  individual,  a  voluntary  association  of  individuals,  or  by  the 
State.  If  then  we  may  speak  of  anything  in  the  human 
sphere  as  natural,  it  will  not  do  to  single  out  the  action  of  the 
State  as  an  exception.  The  State  is  an  essential  part  of  human 
economy,  and  is  as  natural  as  any  other  part. 

Far  down  in  the  human  scale,  it  is  brute  force  that  prevails ; 
the  strong  subordinate  the  weak.  Further  on  new  faculties 
more  and  more  human  and  humane  in  character  come  into 
play,  and  these  take  a  part  in  the  direction  of  events.  There 
are  conscious  reflection  and  sympathy,  and  they  sometimes 
prove  to  be  too  strong  for  short-sighted  and  selfish  impulses, 
whether  these  direct  the  old-time  buccaneers  or  the  modern 
"financial  freebooters."  If  resistance  to  wrong  made  under 


110  GOVERNMENTAL  INTERFERENCE.  [Chap.  VI. 

legal  forms  by  the  sanction  of  an  intelligent  constituency 
should  be  successful,  and  the  masses  of  the  people  gain 
thereby, — would  that  be  an  infringement  of  the  natural  order  ? 
It  would  only  be  throwing  one  more  contestant  into  the 
arena  of  general  conflict,  and  I  do  not  see  how  this  would 
make  the  play  of  the  forces  any  more  unnatural  than  it  was 
before. 

All  along  the  course  of  histor}',  we  find  the  conflict  of  two 
opposing  elements  in  society,  the  one  to  oppress,  the  other  to 
escape  oppression.  This  constitutes  a  very  large  part  of  real 
histor}',  and  it  seems  to  be  about  as  natural  as  anything  in 
human  society  can  be.  What  has  been  the  method  adopted 
to  secure  immunity  from  oppression  ?  That  of  resistance — 
always  resistance.  There  was  no  other  waj*.  What  forms 
have  been  adopted  to  secure  the  results  of  successful  resist- 
ance ?  Constitutional  forms  always ;  restrictions  acknowl- 
edged and  powers  granted  being  incorporated  into  the  funda- 
mental law  of  the  realm  as  a  restraint  on  the  powerful  and  a 
protection  to  the  weak.  The  concessions  went  on  the  records, 
and  their  integrity  was  guaranteed  by  the  sword  as  the  instru- 
ment of  executive  power  in  last  resort.  The  compacts  thus 
made  were  often  violated,  but  they  were  as  often  restored  by 
renewed  effort,  till  at  last  they  stood  secure.  This  has  been 
the  order  substantially  from  Magna  Charta  down  to  the  last 
amendment  of  our  own  constitution,  in  every  successful  strug- 
gle of  freedom  and  right  with  despotism  and  wrong.  The 
point  to  be  noticed  here  is  that,  however  spontaneous  the 
uprising  against  current  oppression,  it  never  left  the  conces- 
sions wrung  from  oppressors  to  be  secured  by  ever-recurring 
spontaneity  of  effort.  On  the  contrary,  the  points  won  have 
been  made  a  part  of  the  political  system ;  and  I  must  confess 
that  I  am  not  able  to  see  why  the  operation  of  the  political 
system  thus  constructed,  is  not  as  much  in  the  natural  course 
of  things  as  the  abuses  which  led  to  its  adoption.  Now,  if 
any  constituency  is  sufficiently  intelligent  to  direct  legislative 
interference  with  business  monopolies  which  wrong  the  people, 


Sec.  43.]    FORCE  AS  AN  ELEMENT  IN  RIGHTING  WRONG.  Ill 

is  not  such  interference  in  the  natural  course  of  things  as  well 
as  the  business  methods  of  the  rings  and  combinations  of  self- 
seeking  men  who  use  their  power  to  overcome  competition  and 
tax  the  people  at  will  ?  If  it  is  not,  so  much  the  worse  for 
"the  natural  course  of  things"  as  a  guide  in  social  and  polit- 
ical methods. 

In  a  sense,  whatever  is,  is  natural.  All  events  are  locked  up 
in  the  complicated  net-work  of  causation,  and  the}'  take  the 
order  they  do,  precisely  because  they  must.  In  this  sense,  all 
things  are  natural.  The  abuse  that  springs  up  is  natural,  and 
the  effort  to  put  it  down  is  natural.  If  the  government  is 
resorted  to  for  correction,  that,  too,  is  a  part  of  the  natural. 
But  this  is  not  the  sense  in  which  the  word  is  used  in  these 
discussions.  The  friends  of  laissez  faire  use  it  apparently  as 
the  opposite  of  governmental.  Governmental  action  is  not 
natural ;  all  or  most  other  action  is  natural.  We  believe  that 
an}-  such  use  of  the  word  is  based  on  an  inadequate  view  of 
what  is  or  is  not  natural,  and  leads  only  to  confusion.  We 
can  go  no  further  with  them  on  this  line  till  they  explain  their 
use  of  this  word. 

43.  FORCE  AS  AN  ELEMENT  IN  THE  RIGHTING  OF  WRONG.— 
One  might  infer  from  Mr.  Spencer's  late  work,  "The  Man 
versus  the  State,"  that  government  should  be  confined  to  a  very 
limited  range  of  duties,  because  it  is  intrinsically  despotic, 
having  been  derived  from  militancy,  whose  spirit  it  still 
retains.  This  view  of  the  case  is  more  likely  to  be  suggested 
by  the  experience  of  Europe  in  government  than  by  that  of 
the  United  States.  The  succession  of  power  from  a  great 
conqueror  to  the  present  time,  suggests  that  political  power  is 
essentially  arbitrary,  however  much  it  may  be  tempered  by 
the  influences  of  modern  life.  But  the  history  of  the  forma- 
tion of  our  own  government  should  dispel  this  illusion.  In 
the  times  when  our  government  had  its  origin  there  was  a 
complete  break  in  the  direct  connection  with  the  political  forms 
of  the  past.  The  old  succession  was  completely  snapped 
asunder,  and  no  part  of  the  old  political  hierarchy  came  over 


112  GOVERNMENTAL  INTERFERENCE.  [Chap.  VI. 

into  the  new  order.  The  rise  and  formation  of  our  govern- 
ment was  the  result  of  as  spontaneous  an  uprising,  of  as 
voluntary  a  cooperation,  as  ever  has  been  witnessed  in  the 
course  of  human  history.  Our  government  had  its  rise  in  the 
committees  of  correspondence,  first  in  Massachusetts  and 
afterward  in  other  colonies,  committees  which  ante-dated  the 
complete  break  from  the  mother  country.  This  movement 
which  first  took  the  form  of  committees,  next  advanced  into 
the  maturer  form  of  colonial  assemblies,  and  still  later  into 
that  of  the  Congress  which  directed  the  war  of  Independence. 
Not  a  particle  of  this  power  was  derived  from  the  British 
throne,  the  original  source  of  supreme  power  in  the  colonies. 
It  was  derived  from  the  spontaneous  action  and  free  will  of  the 
people,  who  had  undertaken  to  manage  for  themselves.  And 
then,  after  the  war,  when  Congress  lost  its  command  over  the 
States,  and  there  was  no  general  government  to  deal  even  with 
the  Algerian  pirates  on  our  coast, — how  came  about  the  estab- 
lishment of  such  a  government  ?  By  the  voluntary  coopera- 
tion of  the  several  States.  This  government  was  not  derived 
from  an}'  ancient  military  dispotism ;  it  sprung  out  of  the 
exigencies  of  the  times,  and  was  as  purely  unforced  as  any 
such  thing  can  be.  Of  course,  the  men  of  the  times  could 
not  get  rid  of  their  habits  and  traditions,  they  could  not  will 
out  of  existence  the  evils  and  annoj-ances  of  anarch}-.  These 
evils  and  annoyances  were  far  worse  to  bear  than  the  evils 
which  are  inherent  in  political  government,  and  one  or  the 
other  they  must  have.  Of  their  own  free  will — as  free  as  will 
generally  is — they  chose  the  latter,  and  made  a  government 
according  to  their  best  thought,  adapting  it  as  well  as  they 
could  to  meet  the  wants  of  men  situated  as  they  were.  But 
they  could  not  make  a  government  without  incorporating  into 
it  the  element  of  force  ;  and  unless  man  is  transformed  into 
something  different  from  what  he  is,  and  placed  in  some  world 
outside  this  universe  as  we  know  it,  there  can  be  no  govern- 
ment without  force. 

Voluntary  association,  indeed,  to  overcome  wrong  and  guard 


Sec.  48.~\     FORCE  AS  AN  ELEMENT  IN  RIGHTING  WRONG.  113 

the  right !  A  non-resistant  association  may  do  to  take  the 
initiative ;  but  associations  are  efficient  in  final  action  only 
so  far  as  they  have  power  to  enforce  their  decrees.  They 
have  not  the  bayonet,  it  is  true,  to  compel  obedience,  but  they 
have  sometimes  means  at  their  disposal  which  necessarily 
partake  of  the  nature  of  force,  since  they  may  coerce  by 
social  and  moral  instrumentalities  as  truly  as  if  they  had  the 
bayonet.  For  want  of  the  power  of  coercion,  many  of  our 
voluntary  combinations  for  protection  against  wrong  prove  to 
be  totally  inadequate  to  the  end  in  view.  Labor  organizations, 
when  aiming  to  secure  compliance  with  a  reasonable  demand 
or  the  redress  of  a  grievance  sometimes  fail  for  want  of  ex- 
ecutive unanimity.  Voluntary  association  must  embody  the 
elements  of  executive  power,  or  it  will  be  overcome  by  a 
power  greater  than  its  own.  What  could  the  farmers  of 
Kansas  and  Nebraska  do  b}-  voluntary  combination  to  get 
reasonable  freight  rates  on  corn  from  way  stations  to  Chicago  ? 
"What  could  the  managers  of  the  granger  movement  have  done 
to  discipline  the  lawless  railroads,  if  they  had  confined  them- 
selves to  voluntary  associations  looking  to  this  end  ?  The}' 
would  have  been  laughed  to  scorn.  Why  ?  Because  they 
would  have  lacked  the  power  of  coercion.  Justice  with  her 
scales  but  without  her  sword  would  be  as  impotent  as  a  figure 
of  speech  to  secure  the  right  between  man  and  man.  It  was 
when  the  grangers  made  themselves  felt  through  the  strong 
arm  of  the  State,  that  the  railroad  managers  learned  a  lesson 
which  they  could  learn  in  no  other  way. 

Now,  in  regard  to  the  various  abuses  to  which  attention  has 
been  called  in  the  preceding  chapter,  are  the  people  to  depend 
wholly  on  voluntary  association  for  correction  and  redress  ? 
How  are  the  consumers  of  salt,  kerosene  oil,  and  a  hundred 
other  articles  on  which  rings  have  made  corners,  to  get  the 
benefits  of  competition  ?  Let  any  one  (or  many)  refuse  to  pay 
an  exorbitant  bill  fixed  by  a  ring  of  manufacturers,  and  he 
would  very  soon  find  he  had  to  deal,  not  only  with  the  power 
of  the  ring,  but  with  the  power  of  the  State  itself.  Every  bill 


114  GOVERNMENTAL  INTERFERENCE.  [Chap.  VI. 

is  collected  under  the  authority  of  the  State,  and  thus  it  comes 
out  that  the  power  of  inflicting  abuses  and  wrongs  on  the 
many  by  the  few  under  the  innocent  name  of  "  business,"  is 
not  so  purely  a  voluntary  thing  divorced  from  State  power  as 
it  might  seem.  And  if  manufacturing  rings  and  common 
carriers  act  under  the  power  of  the  State  to  carry  their  ends, 
why  may  not  their  customers  whom  they  tax,  consistently 
appeal  to  the  State  for  protection  ? 

Mr.  Spencer  has  thrown  light  on  this  subject.  In  making 
his  argument  for  popular  enfranchisement  (Social  Statics,  pp. 
221,  222,)  he  shows  how  easy  it  is  for  the  few  to  combine  to 
effect  their  objects,  but  how  difficult  it  is  for  the  manjr  to  do  so. 
He  says :  "Their  mass  is  too  great,  too  incongruous,  too  scattered 
for  effective  combination."  The  Spencerian  argument  is  that 
the  masses  cannot  make  themselves  felt  through  voluntary  com- 
bination ;  therefore,  they  should  have  the  franchise  in  order  to 
make  themselves  felt  through  the  government.  This  is  their 
only  hope,  however  difficult  it  may  be  to  make  the  govern- 
ment the  general  instrumentality  of  justice  to  all  classes. 
The  people  must  learn  to  redress  their  own  grievances,  and 
for  this  purpose  they  must  use  some  organization  at  hand 
with  sufficient  executive  power  to  compel  obedience.  This  is 
to  be  found  in  the  State  onty.  In  this  country,  as  we  have 
seen,  the  people  founded  the  State, — why  should  they  not  use 
it  for  their  protection  against  selfish  combinations,  which,  by 
indirect  means,  arc  taking  from  the  people  the  unjust  toll  of 
greed? 

44.  ONLY  THROUGH  THE  STATE  CAN  THE  PEOPLE  REDRESS 
THEIR  GRIEVANCES. — I  am  well  aware  of  the  difficulties  to  be 
encountered  in  securing  equity  by  the  voice  of  the  people  even 
in  a  republican  government.  The  people  at  large  can  hardly 
be  made  to  understand  so  well  what  their  interests  are,  and  to 
labor  for  them  so  effcctivel}*,  as  certain  classes  are  made  to 
understand  and  work  for  class  interests.  This  has  always  been 
the  trouble  and  it  is  the  trouble  now.  But,  on  the  other  hand, 
I  am  just  as  well  aware  that  this  is  the  only  road  on  which 


Sec.  44-}  REDRESS  FOR  GRIEVANCES,  115 

approximate  equity  is  to  be  secured.  If  the  people  arc  not 
able  to  use  the  instrumentalities  of  the  government  for 
redress,  they  are  certainly  not  able  to  create  other  instrumen- 
talities and  use  them  effectively  for  this  purpose.  If  the 
people  cannot,  by  concert  of  action,  arrest  plutocratic  aggres- 
sion through  the  strong  machinery  of  government,  they  cannot 
arrest  it  through  the  feebler  machinery  of  extemporaneous 
device.  I  know  very  well  that  the  governmental  machinery 
is  a  good  deal  out  of  order  and  in  need  of  renovation  and 
righting  up  to  put  it  in  good  working  condition.  "Ay,  and  for 
that  very  reason,"  retorts  Laissez  Faire,  "you-  cannot  use  it  for 
the  ends  you  have  in  view."  But  what  has  demoralized  it  ? 
Very  largety,  the  very  class  interests  whose  extreme  self-seek- 
ing we  ask  to  abate.  The  successes  of  unscrupulous  greed  have 
tainted  the  whole  social  body,  till  the  government  itself  has 
come  to  be  regarded  very  largely  as  useful  mainly  in  the  op- 
portunity it  affords  for  "jobs."  Now,  to  work  for  the  correction 
of  plutocratic  abuses  by  means  of  feeble  outside-machinery, 
while  the  plutocrats  are  working  the  strong  government  ma- 
chinery to  maintain  and  further  their  aggressions,  is  to  waste 
energy,  and  nothing  effectual  will  be  done  to  restrain  the 
granting  of  privileges  and  the  building  up  of  monopolies.  If 
the  people  cannot  so  correct  the  action  of  the  governmental 
machinery  as  to  make  it  efficient  for  their  aims,  they  cannot  by 
any  voluntary  means  effectually  counteract  the  selfish  and  cor- 
rupt use  of  the  State  machinery  by  strong  and  unscrupulous 
men.  I  repeat,  if  we  are  forbidden  to  resort  to  the  government 
for  redress  and  correction,  no  redress  or  correction  is  to  be 
had.  Perhaps  total  impotency  of  the  great  body  of  the  people 
in  presence  of  a  few  strong  classes  is  the  grim  fact.  I  do  not 
say  it  is  not,  but  surely  it  ought  not  to  be  ;  and,  as  yet,  we  do 
not  positively  know  what  may  or  may  not  be  done  to  reform 
the  action  of  government  and  make  it  subservient  to  the  gen- 
eral interests  of  the  people.  The  need  has  not  been  sufficient!  jr 
felt,  and,  in  consequence,  but  little  has  been  done  on  this  line. 
There  is  at  least  sufficient  uncertainty  in  the  matter  to  make 


116  GOVEENMANTAL  INTERFERENCE.  [Chap.  VI. 

it  au  open  and  unsettled  question,  and,  while  this  is  the  case, 
endeavor  should  be  made  along  the  line  on  which  there  is  most 
promise  of  success. 

I  am  painfully  aware  that  there  are  economists  high  in 
authority  who  preach  that  all  is  well ;  when  every  intelligent 
and  unbiased  person  knows  that  all  is  not  well.  Some  of  these 
economists  when  compelled  to  recognize  the  existence  of  busi- 
ness wrongs,  say,  "just  let  them  alone,  and  self-acting  econom- 
ical principles  will  right  them. "  They  pointed  lately  to  the 
fall  in  stocks,  and  exclaimed,  "  see  how  the  water  is  wrung  out 
of  them  without  any  State  interference ! "  Ah,  yes,  at  last.  But 
what  had  the  water  done  meantime  under  the  highly  philo- 
sophical principle  of  non-interference  ?  It  had  served  as  a 
basis  for  high  local  charges  for  freights,  messages,  and  the  like, 
thus  securing  good  dividends  by  fleecing  the  public,  so  that, 
notwithstanding  its  water,  the  stocks  maintained  in  flush 
times  a  good  reputation  on  the  market,  and  widows  and  or- 
phans (the  same  widows  and  orphans  that  arc  used  by  these 
economists  as  buffers  on  the  silver  question) — and  widows  and 
orphans  invested  their  funds  in  these  stocks,  and  now  that  the 
water  is  wrung  out,  the  hearts  of  the  widows  and  orphans  arc 
wrung,  too,  but  the  wily  manipulators  have  none  the  less 
made  their  millions.  Ah,  yes,  economical  principles  may  of 
themselves  right  the  wrongs,  and  in  so  doing  inflict  more  wrong 
than  ever.  Has  justice  nothing  better  in  store  for  us  than  this  ? 

45.  WORK  OP  CORRECTION  THE  GOVERNMENT  SHOULD  DO. — 
To  ask  that  the  government  should  use  its  power  to  correct 
wrong,  is  not  to  ask  that  it  shall  do  for  the  people  what  they 
can  better  do  for  themselves.  What  is  wanted  is  that  the 
government  shall  do  what  voluntary  effort  without  the  means 
which  the  State  affords,  cannot  do.  First  of  all,  the  govern- 
ment should  be  made  to  correct  the  abuse  which  in  times  past 
it  has,  under  the  manipulation  of  unscrupulous  men,  helped  to 
bring  about,  such  as  the  extortions  and  discriminations  of  rail- 
roads, telegraphs,  and  other  monopolies  operating  under  fran- 
chises from  the  State.  Secondly,  it  should  be  made  to  do 


Sec.  4$ •]  EVOLUTION  IN  GOVERNMENT.  117 

what  is  feasibla  to  protect  the  masses  of  the  people  against  the 
greed  of  business  concerns  which  take  advantage  of  "  business 
principles  "  under  the  technical  protection  of  the  laws,  to  build 
up  fortunes  for  the  few  out  of  the  hard  earnings  of  the  million. 
And  lastly,  the  government  should  do,  for  the  general  good, 
certain  things,  not  of  a  negative  but  of  a  positive  character, 
which  do  not  come  fairly  within  the  scope  of  private  enterprise. 
And,  in  saying  this,  I  must  disclaim  an}'  sympathy  with  the 
view  of  those  extremists  who  wish  to  supersede  private  enter- 
prise with  the  public  management  of  business  in  general. 
There  are  kinds  of  business  which  are  especially  adapted  to 
individual  management,  as  for  example,  the  cultivation  of  a 
farm,  the  management  of  a  shop,  all  productive  business,  buy 
ing  and  selling  commodities.  The  government  should,  of  course, 
undertake  to  do  none  of  these  ;  it  should  simply  protect.  But, 
on  the  other  hand,  there  arc  kinds  of  business  which  cannot 
safely  be  entrusted  to  unrestrained  individual  management. 
These  kinds  of  business  are  public  or  semi-public  in  character. 
They  directty  affect  the  community  in  a  large  wa}*,  and  the 
community  should  have  some  voice  in  them.  They  should 
cither  be  done  by  public  agencies,  or  be  done  under  the  super- 
vision of  such  agencies.  I  am  very  well  aware  that  in  all  this 
we  have  but  to  choose  between  S3'stems,  each  of  which  has  its 
peculiar  evils.  But  under  the  changed  conditions  of  modern 
development,  the  system  of  a  greater  extension  of  govermental 
duties  with  the  evils  inherent  therein,  may  be  far  better  than 
the  system  of  non-interference  with  the  evils  it  necessarily 
involves. 

4G.  EVOLUTION  IN  GOVERNMENT. — Laissez  Faire  says :  "  You 
will  greatly  increase  the  functions  of  government  with  beau- 
rocracy  and  centralization  to  correspond."  Very  well,  but  is 
this  not  made  necessary  by  the  very  conditions  of  a  high  civil- 
ization ?  And  is  not  this  movement  essentially  that  of  devel- 
opment ?  What  is  the  course  development  takes  ?  Witness 
it  in  the  living  organism :  the  differentiation  of  parts  unlike 
each  other  and  performing  a  diversity  of  functions  under  the 


118  GOVERNMENTAL  INTERFERENCE.  [Ckap.VL 

control  of  the  central  nervous  system.  The  more  the  parts  in- 
crease and  the  greater  the  diversity  of  functions  they  perform, 
the  more  dependent  each  part  is  on  the  others,  and  this  inter- 
dependence renders  integration,  or  the  coordination  of  all  into 
one,  a  necessity.  History  shows  that  this  principle  is  illus- 
traded  by  the  development  of  government  as  well  as  by  the 
development  of  the  living  organism.  Among  primitive  peoples 
government  has  little  diversity  of  parts  corresponding  to  little 
diversity  of  functions ;  but  as  society  advances,  the  parts, 
organs,  or  institutions  increase  in  number  to  perform  the  in- 
creasing number  of  functions  which  arise,  until  what  was  at 
first  very  simple  becomes  at  length  very  complex.  That  is,  it 
pursues  the  usual  course  of  development.  It  is  the  close 
relation,  the  intimate  inter-dependence  of  the  multiplied  inter- 
ests and  functions  of  the  highly  civilized  society  that  renders 
central  supervision  and  direction  absolutely  necessary.  Every 
advancing  civilized  government  on  the  face  of  the  earth  is  to- 
day illustrating  the  truth  of  this  view.  Government  must 
assume  the  supervision  or  the  direction  of  certain  functions, 
because,  under  individual  management  they  are  perverted  to 
wrongful  ends.  And,  besides,  symmetry  of  relation  can  only 
be  maintained  by  unity  of  direction. 

I  have  a  very  distinct  recollection  of  the  source  whence  I 
derived  this  view  of  evolution  in  government.  In  April,  1857, 
appeared,  in  the  Westminster  Review,  a  momentous  essay 
on  "  Progress  :  its  Law  and  Cause."  This  essay  was  followed 
by  another,  in  the  Edinburgh  Review — I  think — on  the  "  Social 
Organism."  About  the  same  time,  I  read  Guyot's  "  Earth  and 
Man,"  Guizot's  "  History  of  Civilization,"  and  Comte's  "  Posi- 
tive Philosophy";  and  these  with  the  two  review  articles 
created  for  me  an  intellectual  epoch.  The  interest  I  felt  at  the 
time  in  the  system  of  thought  they  combined  to  establish,  was 
soon  after  greatly  intensified  by  the  events  which  threatened 
to  destroy  the  American  Union.  I  looked  over  the  historical 
ground  for  myself  in  the  light  of  the  principles  Mr.  Spencer 
had  so  ably  brought  into  view,  and  I  said,  this  Union  will 


SeC.  46.]  EVOLUTION  IN  GOVEKNMENT.  119 

stand.  It  comprises  a  diversity  of  mutually  dependent  inter- 
ests bound  together  by  ready  facilities  of  intercommunication 
and  unity  of  control,  and  it  cannot  be  easily  rent  asunder.  And 
this  little  picture  came  to  mind  :  Jefferson  Davis  and  his  con- 
freres in  their  little  boat  of  secession  rowing  confidently  but 
unconsciously  against  the  tide  of  historj',  till  the  tide  swept 
them  down.  And  often  within  the  last  few  years  this  old  vi- 
sion of  'Gl  has  been  called  to  mind  by  the  extreme  efforts  of 
the  laissez-faire  school  of  economists.  There  is  scarcely  any- 
thing of  a  practical  character  to  encourage  the  extreme  advo- 
cates of  non-interference,  but  the  hearty  cheers  with  which  they 
hail  the  literary  efforts  of  one  another.  The  swallowing  up 
of  the  smaller  industries  by  the  larger ;  the  coalescence  of  the 
different  branches  of  the  same  business  into  one  subject  to  one 
head,  thus  subordinating  competition  to  monopoly;  the  super- 
vision by  government  of  general  interests  pertaining  to  educa- 
tion, health,  and  the  protection  of  the  feeble  against  injustice ; 
the  assumption  by  every  progressive  government  of  new  duties 
made  necessary  by  the  new  modern  conditions  ; — all  these  and 
the  like  constitute  the  current  tide  of  history,  and  the  little 
boat  of  Laissez-Faire  will  not  be  able  to  stem  it,  and  the  tide 
will  not  be  stayed.  I  am  compelled  to  take  this  view  of  the 
matter  from  what  I  understand  to  be  evolution  itself.  How 
Mr.  Spencer,  who  has  wrought  out  this  law  so  thoroughly, 
could  also  write  certain  passages  in  "  The  Man  versus  the 
State,"  I  cannot  clearly  comprehend.  Sometimes  an  early  im- 
pression becomes  so  fixed  and  absolute  in  the  mind  as  to  defy 
relation,  and  is  afterwards  reproduced  in  spite  of  broader  views 
meantime  taken,  which  are  incompatible  with  it. 

Government  has  been  derived  from  a  sort  of  family  arrange- 
ment among  little  groups  of  mankind,  in  which  the  acts  of  one 
member  very  directly  affected  the  interests  of  all  other  mem- 
bers. This  was  the  situation  under  feudalism,  and,  in  conse- 
quence of  this  close  relation  between  the  members  of  society, 
there  was  a  great  deal  of  regulation  by  custom  and  law,  the 
stronger  and  superior  using  their  authority  to  direct  the  social 


120  OOVERNMANTAL  INTERFERENCE.  [Chap.  VI. 

and  individual  proceedings  of  their  dependents.  Of  course, 
the  powerful  abused  their  privileges  more  or  less  as  usual,  and 
imposed  rules  for  their  own  selfish  purposes.  When  these 
isolated  feudal  communities  became  integrated  into  larger 
organizations,  the  habits  of  life  heretofore  prevailing  were  not 
laid  aside  at  once,  and  still  there  was  a  great  deal  of  regula- 
ting done  by  the  sovereign  authority.  The  industries  of  the 
people,  how  they  should  do  this  or  that,  what  they  should  cat 
and  wear,  what  games  the}'  might  or  might  not  play,  how  they 
should  buy  and  sell,  what  should  be  exported  or  not,  what 
laborers  might  or  might  not  do  ; — it  was  supposed  that  nothing 
would  go  right  unless  it  was  regulated  by  the  central  author- 
ity. With  the  accumulation  of  experience  and  the  increase  of 
intelligence,  it  became  a  question  whether  some  of  this  regula- 
ting could  not  very  well  be  dispensed  with.  So  much  regula- 
tion sat  awkwardly  upon  the  times  and  became  uncomfortable, 
because  it  was  the  survival  of  conditions  which  had  been  out- 
grown. For  many  generations  this  gave  character  to  a  polit- 
ical movement  with  conservatives  on  one  side  and  innovators 
on  the  other,  the  latter  constantly  gaining  ground  by  the  suc- 
cess of  their  efforts  to  get  rid  of  some  old  restriction  on  social 
life,  industry,  and  commerce.  Freedom  so  expanded  that  a 
man  might  cultivate  his  own  acres  in  his  own  waj',  and  a 
laborer  might  go  where  he  could  get  the  highest  wages  and  do 
the  best  for  himself  and  family.  But  there  were  so  many  of 
these  ancient  restrictions,  and  it  required  so  much  time  and 
effort  to  remove  them  under  the  slow  change  of  conditions, 
that  some  writers  appear  to  have  formed  the  idea  that  this  is 
a  movement  which  is  to  continue  till  political  government 
shall  become  only  a  shadow  of  its  former  self,  to  be  used  only 
in  a  negative  sort  of  way  for  the  protection  of  individuals  and 
classes  in  carrying  out  their  own  schemes  in  their  own  ways, 
according  to  the  measure  of  their  powers  and  opportunities. 
This  implies  that  political  government  is  not  subject,  under 
the  general  development  of  society,  to  the  law  of  evolution. 
It  implies  that  it  is  subject  to  attrition  and  decay.  We  think 


SeC.  46-]  EVOLUTION  IN  GOVERNMENT.  121 

this  a  mistaken  view.  It  overlooks  the  development  of  higher 
organs  and  functions,  while  those  which  served  the  organism 
in  earlier  stages  assume  the  rudimentary  condition,  or  undergo 
absorption  and  removal. 

At  the  very  time  that  the  nations  were  getting  rid  of  State 
interference  in  one  direction,  they  were  developing  conditions 
which  called  for  State  interference  in  a  different  direction. 
The  isolation  of  peoples  and  communities  was  disappearing 
before  the  improved  means  of  intercommunication  which 
brought  them  more  closely  together.  The  isolation  of  classes 
and  interests  was  also  disappearing  under  the  division  of  labor 
and  the  exchange  of  products,  thus  making  classes  and  com- 
munities dependent  on  one  another  in  what  concerned  the 
means  of  living.  This  mutual  dependence  was  binding  the 
several  classes  and  communities  together  more  intimately  than 
ever  before  over  the  large  areas  of  territory  now  constituting 
kingdoms.  There  was  integration  and  consolidation  in  a  much 
higher  form  of  the  social  and  political  organism,  than  had  }'et 
taken  place  in  the  course  of  histor}7,  corresponding  with  like 
phenomena  in  the  higher  types  of  the  organic  world.  And,  as 
in  the  organic  world,  the  complex  dependence  of  organs  and 
functions  requires  central  control  as  the  condition  of  a  harmo- 
niously working  unity,  so  the  like  central  control  for  the  same 
end  is  required  in  the  political  organism,  the  nation.  This  is 
the  reason  why,  in  spite  of  the  protests  of  Laissez  Faire,  the 
governments  have  been  constantly  assuming  new  functions, 
and  complicating  their  systems  of  administration.  This  be- 
comes necessary  to  meet  the  exigencies  of  the  case  and  pre- 
vent undue  encroachments  upon  the  weak  by  the  powerful  in 
the  midst  of  so  great  a  diversity  of  interests,  among  which,  by 
their  nature,  there  is  more  or  less  ineradicable  conflict. 

The  multiplication  of  functions  which  has  taken  place  in 
political  government  within  the  last  200  years,  is  not  simply 
the  result  of  splitting  up  the  old  functions  without  change  of 
character.  The  process  has  been  one  of  differentiation,  the 
new  functions  made  necessary  by  the  new  conditions  diverging 


122  GOVERNMENTAL  INTERFERENCE.  [Chap.VL 

in  character  from  the  old.  Among  these  new  functions  may 
be  named  :  Providing  for  general  education ;  protecting  women 
and  children  from  torture  and  death  in  certain  kinds  of  manu- 
facturing establishments  :  providing  penalties  for  the  adultera- 
tion of  food  ;  stamping  out  the  contagious  diseases  of  animals ; 
protecting  animals  from  cruel  treatment ;  looking  after  the 
sanitary  conditions  of  human  habitations  with  a  view  to  their 
improvement ;  studying  up  new  industries  and  testing  their 
value  ;  protecting  the  weaker  party  to  a  contract  against  over- 
reaching by  the  stronger  party,  and  not  as  formerly  helping  the 
stronger  party  to  still  greater  advantage  ;  regulating  monopoly, 
not  in  the  interest  of  government  officials  as  in  times  past,  but 
in  the  interest  of  the  people.  Some  of  this  obtains  in  little 
more  than  theory,  and  much  of  it  is  imperfectly  done  ;  but  the 
fact  that  the  governments  of  the  civilized  world  arc  more  and 
more  undertaking  to  do  such  work  in  answer  to  an  efficient 
demand,  shows  that  it  is  in  the  line  of  a  general  tendency — 
that  it  is  in  "the  natural  course  of  things,"  if  you  please. 
All  these  special  functions  mutually  inter-related  could  belong 
only  to  a  high  order  of  organism  under  unity  of  control. 
Hence  more  distinctly  marked  political  centralization. 

47.  THE  TYRANNY  OP  VOLUNTARY  COMBINATIONS.  —  Mr. 
Spencer  believes  that  the  Liberals  have  changed  front  by  con- 
founding two  very  unlike  things.  At  first  they  did  good  by 
repealing  restrictive  legislation  ;  but,  forgetting  by  and  by  that 
the  good  done  was  the  result  of  repeal,  they  referred  it  to 
direct  legislation,  and  were  hence  led  to  the  enactment  of 
restrictive  legislation  for  the  good  they  expected  it  to  do,  thus 
reversing  their  early  method.  Is  it  not,  however,  Mr.  Spencer 
that  makes  the  mistake  in  supposing,  because  government  had 
done  good  by  repealing  old  meddlesome  legislation  which 
never  had  any  use,  or  had  lost  its  usefulness,  that  this  process 
is  to  go  on  without  limit  till  government  shall  be  reduced  to  a 
very  simple  organism  ?  Is  it  not  discernible  in  the  very  his- 
tory which  records  the  abrogation  of  restrictive  laws,  that  con- 
ditions are  arising  which  require  the  assumption  of  new  duties 


Sec.  47.~\    THE  TYRANNY  OP  VOLUNTARY  COMBINATIONS.  123 

by  the  government  to  meet  the  new  requirements  of  society  ? 
To  assume  that  getting  rid  of  wrongful  interference  with  the 
freedom  of  industry,  indicates  continued  release  from  restrict- 
ive laws,  till  there  is  little  for  the  government  to  do,  is,  to  my 
mind,  something  like  the  mistake  those  make  who  assume  that, 
because  the  condition  of  workingmen  has  improved  during  the 
last  two  centuries,  it  will,  by  some  occult  and  absolute  law,  go 
on  improving  without  limit  or  reaction.  (Sec.  5.) 

I  suspect  that  the  basis  of  Mr.  Spencer's  error,  if  error  it  be, 
is  to  be  found  in  his  radical  assumption  that  mankind  under 
industrialism  will  outgrow  the  need  of  compulsion.  I  fear 
compulsion  is  so  intimately  bound  up  with  the  human  con- 
stitution in  its  relations  to  society,  as  to  be  quite  ineradicable. 
Human  associations  and  organizations  of  various  kinds  arc 
making  little  progress  as  yet  in  the  art  of  getting  along  with- 
out compulsion,  as  Mr.  Spencer  concedes,  and  they  are  likely 
to  go  slow  in  this  direction  for  a  long  time,  as  Mr.  Spencer 
admits,  so  that  the  amiable  view  he  takes  of  the  matter  can  be 
realized,  if  at  all,  only  in  the  far-off  future.  It  concerns  us 
mainly  as  a  theory  with  little  relation  to  the  present,  and  we 
have  hardly  the  means  at  hand  to  settle  it  even  as  a  theory. 

While  it  has  to  be  admitted  that  compulsion  is  an  element 
in  every  organization,  I  apprehend  Mr.  Spencer  magnifies  the 
compulsion  which  is  inherent  in  political  organization.  In 
order  to  give  an  adequate  conception  of  the  tyranny  of  polit- 
ical government,  he  shows  how  tyrannical  even  voluntary  or- 
ganizations may  be  (Man  vs.  State,  4).  But  on  pages  109  and 
110  of  the  same  work,  we  find  the  following  :  "  Being  carried 
on  by  voluntary  cooperation  instead  of  by  compulsory  coopera- 
tion, industrial  life  as  we  now  know  it,  habituates  men  to  in- 
dependent activities,  leads  them  to  enfore  their  own  claims 
while  respecting  the  claims  of  others,  strengthening  the  con- 
sciousness of  personal  rights,  and  prompts  them  to  resist 
excesses  of  governmental  control."  An  error  of  fact  is  this, 
we  fear,  except  that  these  cooperative  bodies  do  resist  govern- 
mental control,  and  naturally  enough,  since  they  are  success- 
12 


124  GOVERNMENTAL  INTERFERENCE.  [Chap.  VI. 

fully  taking  the  tyranny  of  control  into  their  own  hands.  The 
very  worst  tyrannies  we  have  to  contend  with  in  the  interest 
of  general  justice  and  freedom  are  the  tyrannies  of  cooperative 
bodies.  The  management  of  most  of  the  industries  is  consoli- 
dating more  and  more  by  a  voluntary  tendency  which  adapts 
business  to  the  exigency  of  the  times.  It  is  not  only  consoli- 
dating, but  concentrating  in  the  hands  of  the  few,  and  this  pro- 
cess will  probably  go  on  further  than  we  are  now  able  to  sec. 
These  few  hands  assume  to  act  for  the  corporators,  and  they 
wield  a  tremendous  power.  Do  the}'  simply  "  enforce  their 
own  claims  while  respecting  the  claims  of  others"?  Let  their 
acts  tell.  They  enforce  their  claims  with  a  rigid  hand,  and 
with  personal  motives  grasp  all  that  is  to  be  had.  Why 
should  they  not  resist  governmental  control  ?  They  arc  intoxi- 
cated with  power,  and  no  tyranny  ever  yet  submitted  with 
grace  to  orderly  regulation. 

As  I  understand  Mr.  Spencer,  he  regards  the  t}-ranny  of 
modern  governments  to  consist  mainly  in  taxation  for  un- 
necessary and  wrongful  purposes,  thus  making  the  struggle 
of  life  greater  for  the  better  sort  of  people.  This  is  precisely 
the  evil  more  and  more  brought  upon  the  better  classes  in 
society  by  voluntary  rings  that  pay  works  to  lie  idle  and  tax 
the  people  for  dead  rent.  (Sec.  41.)  "Whatever  reduces  supply 
to  defeat  competition  and  keep  prices  from  falling  with  the 
improvement  of  machinery,  taxes  honest  people  for  the  benefit 
of  those  who  are  not  honest.  It  is  true  that  these  voluntary 
combinations  have  power  to  execute  their  devices  under  pro- 
tection afforded  by  the  State,  but  this  docs  not  explain  away 
the  inherent  despotism  of  these  combinations.  Their  thirst 
for  power  to  execute  their  plans  is  so  great  that  some  of  them 
ask  that  the  State  shall  give  them  legal  authorit}-,  with  penal- 
ties attached,  to  compel  obedience  from  all  the  cooperating 
members.  In  railroad  pools  the  treachery  of  members,  in 
secretly  violating  the  agreements,  thwarts  the  aims  of  the  pool- 
ing arrangement,  and  Messrs.  Fink  and  Adams  want  the  Stuto 
to  endow  railroad  combinations  with  State  power;  but  they  and 


SeC.  4$.~\  LIMITS  TO  INTERFERENCE.  125 

most  of  the  great  managers  deprecate  interference.  They 
want  business  to  take  its  "  natural  course "  and  work  out  its 
beneficent  purposes,  wielding  State  power,  it  is  true,  but  in  no 
way  to  be  controlled  by  the  State.  The  love  of  power  does 
not  abate  with  the  progress  of  civilization.  It  may  find  less 
harsh  and  more  indirect  ways  for  its  exercise,  thus  shifting  its 
methods,  but  it  is  substantially  as  arbitrary  in  character  as 
ever. 

To  an  extent  which  is  already  threatening,  these  voluntary 
combinations  are  self-seeking,  aggressive,  irresponsible.  They 
subordinate  whatever  they  can  to  their  interests,  and  sub- 
stantially recognize  no  principle  but  success,  crush  whom  it 
may;  hence  the  need  of  regulation  by  a  power  that  represents 
the  people.  De  Tocqueville  thought  that  manufacturers  were 
the  greatest  offenders  in  this  direction,  and  most  needed  regula- 
tion. If  he  had  written  a  few  decades  later,  he  would  have 
found  actual  evolution  in  the  powers  and  devices  of  unjust 
gain,  and  would  have  been  compelled  still  further  to  check  his 
philosophical  inclination  toward  the  doctrine  of  letting-alone. 

Although  governments  have  been  and  still  are  largely  used 
to  make  the  strong  stronger  in  the  conflicts  of  life,  the  theory 
of  government  is  that  it  shall  protect  those  in  need  of  protec- 
tion by  securing  justice  to  all.  Formerly  individuals  and  fam- 
ilies undertook  to  avenge  their  own  wrongs,  but  government 
has  universally  taken  in  hand  the  settlement  of  open  disputes, 
thereby  affording  protection  to  the  weak  through  the  adminis- 
tration of  justice — and,  corrupt  as  this  often  is,  it  is  preferable 
to  the  old  methods  with  its  bitter  feuds.  The  exercise  of  force 
is  necessary  to  better  method ;  and  yet  it  may  be  a  far  more 
benignant  exercise  of  force  than  that  which  is  used  by  rings 
and  syndicates  for  selfish  ends  ; — far  more  benignant  and  just 
because  held  to  be  responsible.  It  is  here  especially  there 
arises  an  admonition  to  the  people  not  to  neglect  the  duty  they 
owe  to  themselves. 

48.  LIMITS  TO  INTERFERENCE. — Now,  since  there  is  no  polit- 
ical movement  without  its  accompanying  drawbacks,  its  per- 


126  GOVERNMENTAL  INTERFERENCE.  [Chap.  VI. 

versions,  abuses,  dangers,  therefore  should  the  extension  of  the 
political  functions  into  new  fields,  with  the  centralization  which 
this  process  necessarily  involves,  be  made  only  in  reponse  to 
the  obvious  needs  growing  out  of  new  conditions.  Such  ex- 
tension of  political  functions  can  take  place  only  under  resist- 
ance, and  the  resistance  is  to  be  welcomed  for  its  office  of  pre- 
venting too  great  precipitation  and  the  consequent  evil  that 
belongs  to  whatever  is  premature.  Attempts  might  be  made 
to  thrust  the  national  arm  into  spheres  of  action  where  there  is 
no  legitimate  demand  for  it.  It  has  no  right  to  meddle 
with  private  business  properly  such.  It  has  no  right  to  dis- 
place local  self-government.  "What  concerns  local  questions 
can  best  be  determined  under  local  conditions,  and  any  at- 
tempt on  the  part  of  the  central  government  to  manage  local 
affairs  is  downright  despotism.  But  in  our  country,  for  exam- 
ple, there  arc  interstate  forces  which  defy  State  laws,  and  such 
must  be  dealt  with  by  the  general  government.  The  functions 
of  the  individual  State  (in  our  system)  may  also  extend  into 
new  fields,  covering  operations  which  are  comprised  within  the 
jurisdiction  of  the  State.  It  may  have  its  own  S3Tstcm  of 
echools,  its  game  laws  ;  it  may  regulate  its  insurance  compa- 
nies, its  local  canals,  roads,  railroads,  warehouses  ;  it  may 
protect  its  women  and  children  as  laborers,  and  generally  use 
such  oversight  as  may  be  necessary  to  prevent  strong  indi- 
viduals and  classes  from  indulging  in  unjust  aggression  toward 
weaker  individuals  and  classes.  Whatever  ma}r  thus  be  done 
efficiently  by  the  local  government,  whether  of  city,  township, 
county,  or  State,  should  be  done  by  it,  each  being  regarded 
as  so  far  a  complete  political  organization  within  itself.  But 
outside  of  this  and  beyond,  there  are  aggressive  forces  in  so- 
ciety which  only  the  nation  can  properly  supervise.  The  ty- 
ranny of  long  hours  of  labor  in  the  great  industries  is  really 
one  of  these ;  the  length  of  the  labor  day  should  be  uniform 
to  the  greatest  possible  extent.  It  should  even  be  interna- 
tional, the  conditions  of  protection  requiring  general  concert 
of  action  by  taking  away  the  economical  advantage  from  the 


Sec.  49."]  MODERN  CHANGE  IN  SOCIETY.  127 

selfishness,  greed,  and  cruelty  of  long  hours.  Marriage  laws 
should  be  uniform  throughout  the  civilized  world.  Lines  of 
railroad  which  extend  from  State  to  State,  long  lines  of  tele- 
graph, express  lines,  all  of  which  have  the  power  of  extortion 
and  discrimination,  cannot  be  regulated  to  the  standard  of  fair 
dealing,  except  by  the  power  of  the  general  government. 

49.  THE  MODERN  CHANGE  IN  THE  STRUCTURE  OP  SOCIETY. — 
A  hundred  j-ears  ago  when  liberal  men  were  agitating  to  get 
rid  of  hampering  laws  which  had  come  down  from  other 
times,  there  were  none  of  those  powerful  combinations  of  man- 
agement which  aspire  to  divide  the  empire  of  business  among 
themselves.  There  were  indeed  guilds  of  artisans  and  mer- 
chants that  sought  to  get  rid  of  competition,  but  owing  to  the 
want  of  facilities  for  ready  communication,  their  operations 
were  mainly  local  and  could  not  assume  the  imperial  form  of 
some  of  our  modern  combinations.  There  were  no  great 
industries  employing  man}-  thousands  of  laborers,  and  subject 
to  the  control,  without  competition,  of  a  few  autocratic  mana- 
gers who  recognized  no  aim  but  profit,  no  guide  but  self- 
interest.  There  were  no  great  combinations  of  trunk  lines 
commanding  the  great  internal  commerce  of  the  country  with 
the  authority  of  a  Caesar,  and  making  their  least  word  felt  at 
every  hearthstone  in  the  land.  A  craft  guild  had  for  its  object 
the  advantage  of  those  who  formed  the  fraternity,  and  it  might, 
b}-  reducing  the  number  of  apprentices  and  the  hours  of  labor, 
limit  production  and  keep  up  prices,  but  the  rules  having  this 
object  in  view,  must  be  submitted  to  the  town  authorities  for 
approval ;  and  this  approval  was  held  to  be  grounded  on  the 
principle  that  the  general  good,  and  not  the  gain  of  the  special 
craft,  was  the  aim  to  be  kept  in  view  (ClifFe  Leslie).  The 
whole  structure  of  society  has  changed  within  the  last  century 
or  two,  and  what  was  fitting  in  times  past  may  be  very  far  from 
fitting  now  ;  a  fact,  of  which,  it  is  to  be  feared,  our  extremists 
of  the  laissez-faire  school  have  not  made  sufficient  note. 

Instead  of  a  head  workman,  with  a  few  journeymen  and 
apprentices,  we  have  now  huge  manufactories,  any  one  of 


128  GOVERNMENTAL  INTERFERENCE.  [Chdp.VI. 

which,  with  its  facile  machinery  and  its  thousands  of  opera- 
tives, will  do  as  much  work  in  a  day,  as  one  of  the  little  shops 
of  old  would  do  in  a  life-time.  Business  becomes  in  this  way 
more  and  more  concentrated,  more  and  more  under  the  law  of 
combination,  less  and  less  under  the  law  of  competition.  Has 
Laissez  Faire  duly  made  a  note  of  this  ?  It  is  far  easier  now 
than  formerly  for  combination  to  get  rid  of  competition. 
Under  the  influence  of  the  habits  and  traditions,  as  well  as 
under  the  influence  of  corporation  fees,  some  of  our  great 
lawyers  assume  that  all  this  business  is  conducted  as  if  it  were 
subject  to  fair  competition,  and  that  it  is  private  in  character 
as  if  it  had  nothing  directly  to  do  with  the  public  ;  and  they 
say  the  State  must  not  meddle  with  this  private  capital  and 
private  business.  But  none  the  less  are  we  face  to  face  with 
the  fact  that  elevator  rings,  Standard  Oil  rings,  coal  rings, 
quarrymen's  rings,  and  a  hundred  others  arc  daily  drawing 
from  the  substance  of  the  people  in  violation  of  the  principles 
of  common  justice.  Has  the  State  no  right  or  power  to  reach 
out  its  arm  for  the  protection  of  those  who  suffer  from  such 
wrongs  ? 

"When  railroads  first  came  into  use,  it  was  supposed  that 
competition  would  regulate  traffic  on  them  as  on  waterways. 
But  this  was  soon  discovered  to  be  a  mistake,  and  the  aphor- 
ism of  George  Stephcnson  proved  to  be  true  that,  "where 
combination  is  possible,  competition  is  excluded."  To  some 
extent  railroad  management  has  been  able  to  baffle  competi- 
tion. Some  of  our  reformers  appear  to  be  determined  that 
railroads  shall  compete.  They  hope  to  effect  this  object  by 
means  of  restrictive  legislation  ;  but,  in  attempting  to  do  this, 
arc  they  not  trying  to  row  their  little  boat  against  the  tide  of 
histon-,  as  the  ultra  friends  of  laissez  faire  are  doing  ?  Does 
not  such  an  attempt  ignore  one  of  the  most  imposing  move- 
ments of  modern  society  ?  It  is  in  the  concurrent  action  of 
the  industrial  forces  to  absorb  the  smaller  industries  and  busi- 
nesses into  larger  ones,  each  being  subject  to  management  by  a 
single  head.  This  movement  is  not  confined  to  railroads  alone  ; 


SeC.  49.]  MODERN  CHANGE  IN  SOCIETY.  129 

it  is  general.  If  railroads  are  to  be  forbidden  the  power  of 
combination  in  order  to  maintain  competition,  then  ought  the 
same  regulation  to  apply  to  all  industries.  To  forbid  combina- 
tion, and  to  force  competition  on  all,  would  be  meddling, 
indeed.  It  would  be  to  reverse  the  present  tendency  of  things 
and  thwart  the  course  of  modern  evolution. 

There  is  great  economy  in  combination,  and  to  forbid  it 
would  be  an  arbitauy  interposition  of  power  to  prevent  econo- 
my in  business  methods.  It  would  be  carrying  out  the  unnat- 
ural decree  that  action  shall  not  take  place  in  the  direction  of 
least  resistance,  even  when  such  action  may  accrue  to  the  ben- 
efit of  all.  Never  mind:  the  tendencies  of  modern  civiliza- 
tion will  go  on  whether  extremists  at  the  one  end  dictate  that 
the  government  must  interfere  to  stop  a  fundamental  and 
wide-reaching  movement,  which  proceeds  from  the  very  con- 
ditions under  which  the  industrial  and  business  forces  must 
act— combination  ;  or  the  extremists  at  the  other  end  declare 
that  government  shall  not  only  permit  these  forces  to  com- 
bine, but  shall  protect  them  in  whatever  course  they  take, 
ignoring  the  possibilities  of  abuse.  What,  it  seems  to  me,  is 
clearty  pointed  out  by  a  review  of  the  modern  situation,  is  that 
combination  must  be  allowed  to  proceed,  even  if  it  put  a 
quietus  on  competition  in  many  ways,  and  that  the  great  body 
of  the  people  on  their  part  must  combine  to  act  through  their 
government  for  the  regulation  of  these  great  businesses  and 
combinations  in  the  interest  of  justice  and  the  common  good. 
Not  every  great  business  requires  supervision.  Much  depends 
on  the  nature  of  the  business,  and  still  more  on  the  nature  of 
its  managers.  Some  managers  are  noblemen  by  constitution, 
who  do  business  on  higher  principles  than  those  of  selfishness 
and  greed.  There  should  be  no  supervision  where  there  is 
no  need  of  it ;  but  where  there  is  need,  there  should  be  a 
responsible  tribunal  ready  to  do  as  best  it  may  what  justice 
requires  to  be  done. 

Let  us  take  the  case  of  railroads.  The  government  has  even 
commanded  that  continuous  lines  under  different  managements 


130  GOVERNMENTAL  INTERFEEENCE.  [Chap.  VI. 

shall  unite  into  one  line  under  a  joint  management,  so  as  to 
facilitate  shipping ;  and,  when  such  lines  voluntarity  combine, 
greatly  to  the  increase  of  such  facilities  and  the  economj7  of 
carrying  on  their  business,  surely  they  should  be  permitted  to 
do  so.  This  amalgamation  or  consolidation  of  roads  is  an 
economical  movement,  which  corresponds  with  the  course 
taken  by  other  industries,  and  there  is  no  reason  why  it  should 
be  made  an  exception  by  restrictive  legislation.  Pooling  in  its 
different  forms  probably  belongs  to  the  same  category  with 
consolidation.  But,  when  roads  consolidate  and  pool,  the}7 
have  great  power  to  commit  abuses,  and  they  have  not  hes- 
itated to  use  that  power.  Sixteen  years  ago  Mr.  Charles  F. 
Adams  declared  that  "Vanderbilt,  embodying  the  autocratic 
power  of  Caesarism,  introduced  into  corporate  life  the  Erie 
ring,  representing  the  combination  of  a  corporation  and  the 
hired  proletariat  of  a  great  city.  The  system  of  corpo- 
rate life,  as  applied  to  industrial  development,  is  yet  in  its 
infancy.  It  always  tends  to  development,  always  to  consolida- 
tion. It  is  ever  grasping  new  powers,  or  insidiously  exercising 
covert  influences.  Even  now  the  system  threatens  the  general 
government."  Much  more  in  this  vein  might  be  quoted  from 
Mr.  Adams,  but  we  have  not  space,  and  there  is  really  no 
need.  Mr.  Chittenden's  testimony  before  the  congressional 
committee  depicted  the  organization  and  power  of  the  great 
railroad  federation  over  which  Mr.  Fink  presides.  This  federa- 
tion embraces  more  than  foriy  roads,  and  its  head,  responsible 
to  no  tribunal  representing  the  people,  "to-day  exercises  a 
power  for  good  or  evil  over  the  commerce  and  products  of  this 
country  greater,  not  only  than  that  of  any  of  his  contempo- 
raries, but  greater  than  any  man  ever  before  exercised  in  this 
country." 

If,  as  Mr.  Adams  said,  this  great  power  threatened  the 
government  years  ago,  what  is  to  be  thought  of  it  now,  when 
it  has  assumed  much  greater  proportions,  and  is  still  growing  ? 
The  confederated  railroads  under  a  single  control  employ 
several  hundred  thousand  men,  and  are  capable  of  much  con- 


SCO.  50.1      IS  GOVERNMENTAL  CONTROL  PRACTICABLE  ?  131 

cert  of  action  for  a  common  end.  They  are  gifted  with  an 
omnipresence  in  business  over  an  immense  territory.  Before 
a  product  can  pass  from  the  producer  to  the  consumer,  this 
confederation  of  carriers  must  have  its  toll.  It  thus  becomes 
a  partner  in  every  business,  and  may  even,  and  often  docs, 
play  the  part  of  a  dictator.  It  has  grown  to  be  an  empire  of 
business  within  the  political  empire ;  and,  not  content  with 
sticking  to  business,  it  has  entered  the  political  field  with 
corporate  motives,  corrupting  legislators  to  do  the  work  it 
wants  done,  and  not  to  do  what  it  does  not  want  done.  It  has 
sent  its  attorneys  and  officers  into  both  houses  of  Congress, 
seated  favorite  judges  to  secure  friendly  verdicts,  and  suborned 
others  to  pervert  justice.  It  is  a  powerful  factor  exercising  a 
deeply  corrupting  influence  on  the  political  agencies  of  this 
country.  Mr.  Adams  truly  says,  "  The  public  corruption  is  the 
foundation  on  which  corporations  depend  for  their  political 
power";  and  he  goes  on  to  describe  the  process.  Mr.  Adams 
may  have  changed  his  mind  since  he  became  a  great  railroad 
president,  but  that  docs  not  invalidate  the  truths  he  spoke  as 
a  railroad  commissioner. 

Is  it  safe  to  let  this  power  go  on  without  national  effort  in 
the  direction  of  control  ?  It  does  not  let  alone ;  it  meddles 
with  everything  that  touches  its  interests.  It  goes  into  the 
political  primaries,  into  the  conventions  of  both  parties,  into 
the  campaigns,  into  the  lobbies  of  legislatures  and  of  Con- 
gress ;  its  hand  is  felt  everywhere.  Is  this  growing,  meddle- 
some, autocratic  power  to  be  let  alone  ?  Laissez  faire  presumes 
free  and  fair  competition  ;  this  power  is  struggling  with  some 
degree  of  success  to  strangle  competition,  and  it  thereby  for- 
feits its  claims  to  protection  under  the  broad  doctrine  of 
laissez  faire. 

50.  Is  GOVERNMENTAL  CONTROL  PRACTICABLE  ? — There  is 
a  question  as  to  the  ability  of  the  government  to  afford  protec- 
tion against  the  abuses  of  business  combinations.  These  com- 
binations may  defy  the  government  and  render  its  acts 
nugatory,  as  Congressman  Phelps  declared  in  his  place  last 


132  GOVERNMENTAL  INTERFERENCE.  [Chap.  VI. 

winter.  But  this  was  hardly  more  than  a  threat — a  remain- 
ing vestige  of  the  old  arrogance,  which  shows  the  will  rather 
than  the  power.  Arrogance  comes  of  irresponsible  and  un- 
checked power,  and  contemptuous  arrogance  was  abundantly 
manifested  by  railroad  magnates  when  the  State  legislatures 
first  undertook  to  deal  with  them  a  dozen  j-ears  ago.  Some  of 
the  railroads  have  already  so  far  submitted  to  State  control  as 
to  afford  a  warrant  that  they  are  not  too  strong  to  be  dealt  with 
by  the  national  government.  It  is  to  be  expected  that  errors  will 
be  made  in  first  attempts,  and  that  repeal  and  amendment  will 
be  necessary  to  correct  and  strengthen  the  work.  The  great 
need  will  be  for  earnestness  and  honesty  in  those  who 
undertake  the  task,  and  these  are  hardly  to  be  had  while  there 
are  so  much  ignorance  and  apathy  on  the  part  of  the  people  in 
general  concerning  the  new  problems  which  arc  springing  up 
under  the  modern  conditions,  and  urgently  requiring  to  be 
dealt  with  by  all  in  the  interest  of  all.  In  this  view  of  the 
case,  the  teachings  of  laissez  faire  have  no  application.  The 
people  must  first  be  instructed  in  the  methods  by  which  fair 
competition  is  circumvented  and  the  aggression  of  the  few 
against  the  many  made  possible  and  successful ;  and  secondly, 
in  the  means  by  which  the  monopolies  so  established  are  to 
be  restrained  in  their  taxing  power  over  the  earnings  of  the 
people. 

With  regard  to  the  duty  the  people  owe  themselves  to  see 
that  their  government  protects  them  against  the  power  of 
those  institutions  it  has  called  into  existence  by  the  granting 
of  franchises,  it  may  be  said  that  there  is  now  a  pretty  gen- 
eral concensus  of  intelligent  opinion,  that  there  is  sufficient 
encouragement  as  to  the  practical  nature  of  the  work  to  war- 
rant the  government  in  undertaking  to  do  it.  "With  regard  to 
the  governmental  control  of  voluntary  combinations  which 
without  charters  use  private  capital  in  such  a  way  as  to 
establish  a  business  tyranny  that  overcomes  competition,  limits 
production  or  service,  and  sets  its  own  prices  on  services 
rendered  or  articles  produced,  there  is  not  the  same  unanimity 


Sec.  50J]      IS  GOVERNMENTAL  CONTROL  PRACTICABLE  ?  133 

of  opinion.  There  is  no  doubt  a  general  feeling  arising  from 
precedent  that  there  should  be  no  State  control  when  the  en- 
terprise is  carried  on  with  private  capital  and  without  special 
powers  from  the  State.  But  when  these  enterprises  assume 
industrial  functions  which  belong  to  civilized  life,  they  directly 
affect  the  interests  of  the  people  at  large,  and  the  people  can- 
not afford  to  be  indifferent  to  the  way  in  which  these  industrial 
functions  are  performed.  If  the  managers  are  able  to  shape 
their  business  into  a  monopoly  by  arbitrarily  crushing  com- 
petition, they  obtain  an  absolute  power  over  markets  which 
should  be  free,  and  it  becomes  the  duty  of  government,  under 
such  circumstances,  to  protect  its  people.  As  long  as  com- 
petition remains,  no  matter  how  many  rings  are  in  the  busi- 
ness, the  State  is  in  duty  bound  to  let  alone.  Free  and  fair 
competition  will  of  itself  usually  take  care  of  the  interests 
of  all.  "When  such  competition  is  overthrown  and  monopoly 
established  by  the  chicanery  of  an  exclusive  ring,  there  is 
palpable  aggression  on  the  rights  of  others,  an  aggression 
which  defies  the  accepted  principles  of  political  economy 
and  outrages  the  better  instincts  of  civilized  life.  And 
are  we  to  be  eternally  told  that  all  this  is  legitimate  and 
not  to  be  meddled  with  ?  The  government  is  bound  by 
the  alleged  purpose  of  its  institution  and  existence,  to  interpose 
resistance.  The  machinery  already  exists  for  doing  this.  "When 
a  State  crushes  out  a  little  ring  of  boatmen  on  the  Erie  canal, 
formed  to  avoid  competition ;  and  when  another  State  regu- 
lates elevator  charges  in  the  city  of  Chicago,  there  is  precedent 
for  interference.  If  it  is  a  violation  of  common  law  to  exclude 
competition  by  combination  and  extort  from  the  people,  it 
should  be  dealt  with  by  law.  And  when  it  is  only  a  little 
ring — and  that,  perhaps,  not  exclusive  as  in  the  case  of  the 
boatmen — when  it  is  only  a  little  ring  that  is  subjected  to 
discipline,  the  thing  seems  to  be  easy  and  natural  enough  ;  but 
when  the  big,  exclusive  rings  are  threatened  with  justice,  there 
is  great  outcry,  and  philosophy  and  political  economy  are  sum- 
moned in  protest  against  the  contemplated  outrage  to  business 


134  GOVERNMENTAL  INTERFERENCE.  [CAflj).  VI. 

freedom.  Yet  it  is  these  very  rings  that  are  committing  out- 
rages on  business  freedom  ;  and  it  is  for  this  very  reason  that 
it  is  incumbent  on  government  as  the  supreme  power  pledged 
to  the  protection  of  all  in  the  interest  of  equity,  to  deal  with 
them. 

Very  largely  these  rings  are  now  able  to  maintain  them- 
selves under  the  narrowing  of  the  field  of  competition  by  our 
tariff  laws.  No  doubt  a  good  ma,ny  of  them  would  dissolve, 
if  deprived  of  the  protection  which  a  high  tariff  affords.  But 
it  is  quite  possible  that  many  of  them  would  continue  to 
operate  as  before,  being  protected  by  the  nature  of  their  busi- 
ness. An  elevator  ring,  for  example,  is  not  affected  directly 
by  tariff  laws.  With  no  rival  quarries  of  Waverly  sandstone 
in  Canada,  the  Waverl}*  sandstone  ring  needs  no  "  protection  " 
to  enable  it  to  maintain  its  monopoly.  Even  with  the  free- 
dom of  competition  which  the  repeal  of  high  tariff  duties 
would  restore,  there  would  still  be  a  field  for  the  governmental 
supervision  of  monopoly  rings. 

With  regard  to  the  third  class  of  cases— those  adapted  to 
governmental  rather  than  to  voluntary  management — there  is 
likely  to  be  much  diversity  of  opinion  as  to  what  cases  really 
belong  to  this  category,  There  should  be  a  thorough  investi- 
gation previous  to  action,  since  ever}'  case  must  stand  or  fall 
on  its  own  merits.  There  are  some  enterprises  considered  as 
worthy  which  would  hardly  be  carried  out  at  all,  if  left  to 
voluntary  agencies.  This  is  true  of  most  improvements  re- 
quired by  civilization  and  usually  made  by  the  State.  It  may 
be  true,  also,  of  enterprises  that  are  generally  regarded  as 
falling  properly  within  the  province  of  voluntary  endeavor. 
As  an  example  we  may  name  the  building  of  the  Washington 
monument.  This  was  undertaken  by  a  voluntary  association 
which  proved  to  be  unable  to  complete  the  work.  Mr.  Cor- 
coran acknowledged  this  at  the  dedication  services,  and  in  the 
name  of  the  Association,  he  thanked  Congress  for  taking  hold 
of  the  enterprise  and  completing  it.  The  question  here  is  not 
whether  this  particular  work  was  a  desirable  one  ;  the  question 


Sec.  51.1  NEGLECT  OP  THE  POOR,  135 

is  whether  the  people  wished  it  to  be  done.  Perhaps  ninety 
per-cent  of  the  people  of  the  United  States  would  have  ex- 
pressed themselves  as  favorable  to  the  enterprise,  and  yet  they 
would  not  contribute,  though  perfectly  willing  to  be  taxed,  for 
the  purpose.  This  shows  how  much  more  efficient  than  any 
voluntary  association  the  State  may  be  in  executing  the  pub- 
lic will. 

The  improvement  of  roads  for  general  travel  and  traffic  may 
be  taken  as  a  type  of  work  of  public  concern  which  public 
authority  only  is  competent  to  do.  To  the  same  category  be- 
long the  protection  of  society  against  the  lawless,  provision 
for  the  care  of  the  insane,  blind,  mute,  and  such  unfortunates 
as  have  not  friends  to  care  for  them  suitably;  also,  provision 
for  common  school  education,  and  especially  for  the  practical 
education  of  those  classes  whose  members  are  most  likely  to 
become  discordant  elements  in  society  and  a  burden  to  the 
public.  Such  need  for  education  points  to  the  encouragement 
of  industry  and  frugality  by  proper  teaching  and  the  establish- 
ment of  people's  banks  for  the  security  of  savings.  The  care 
for  the  needy  should  by  no  means  be  left  to  private  enterprise 
without  concert  of  action,  and  sure  to  encourage  in  many  ways 
the  very  evil  it  is  trying  to  remedy.  This  tax  on  society 
should  be  equitably  borne  by  all,  and  the  work  of  relief  should 
be  systematically  done  on  the  best  ascertained  rules  for  accom- 
plishing the  most  good  with  the  least  evil.  It  does  not  set 
aside  the  expediency  of  this  course,  that  instances  may  be 
given  in  which  the  government  meaning  well  has  done  more 
harm  than  good.  The  same  argument  would  apply  with 
greater  force  against  private  charity. 

51.  DOES  NEGLECT  OP  THE  POOR  FAVOR  IMPROVEMENT  IN 
THE  RACE  ? — Perhaps  this  question  is  legitimate,  since  we  are 
referred  by  high  authoritjT  to  the  law  of  natural  selection  as 
if  it  were  or  should  be  operative  in  society.  If  the  feeble  and 
unfit  were  cherished  and  preserved  by  an  overruling  power,  in  a 
state  of  nature,  the  transmission  of  enfeebled  qualities  thus 
made  possible  would  deteriorate  the  race.  This  is  the  law 

13 


136  GOVERNMENTAL  INTERFERENCE.  [Chap.  VI. 

of  the  air,  the  woods,  and  the  waters  where  might,  cunning, 
and  luck  have  full  swa}T.  This  law  has  also  prevailed  largely 
among  men,  and  done  a  great  deal  to  make  human  history 
(as  well  as  natural  history)  what  it  is.  It  appears  that  some 
of  our  teachers  wish  to  see  this  law  of  the  woods  in  full  force 
among  mankind.  Hear  one  of  them :  "  Nature  has  no  system 
for  handicapping  superiorities.  On  the  contrary,  she  gives 
them  full  operation.  The  State  in  establishing  justice  does  not 
aim  to  correct  nature  in  this,  but  to  leave  her  laws  undis- 
turbed "  (Sumner's  Collected  Essays,  100).  This  is  what  the 
bully  at  school  thinks  when  he  is  treating  his  fellows  to  some 
practical  experience  of  his  own  superiorities.  After  a  few 
applications  of  the  birch,  however,  he  may  discover  there  is  a 
higher  power  than  his  own  that  is  able  to  inflict  penalties  for 
mistaken  manifestations  of  his  personal  transcendencies.  If 
of  a  reflective  turn  of  mind,  he  may  begin  to  realize  that  it  is 
a  function  of  equity  at  times  to  handicap  superiorities.  The 
highwayman  does  not  believe  in  handicapping  superiorities 
when  he  demands  the  traveller's  purse.  It  is  the  law  of  the 
woods  where  the  weak  become  the  prey  of  the  strong.  The 
Standard  Oil  Company  lived  up  to  the  same  law  when  it  beat 
oil  consumers  out  of  $100,000,000.  in  a  few  years.  There  is 
not  a  ring  of  "financial  freebooters"  with  its  grip  of  greed  on 
the  people  but  believes  in  full  range  for  its  business  superior- 
ities, however  much  its  victims  suffer  financial  wrong.  Mr. 
Sumner's  pronunciamento  might  be  expressed  more  tersely 
thus  :  "  Every  fellow  for  himself,  and  the  devil  take  the  hind- 
most." [I  retain  this  saying,  which  was  in  manuscript  several 
weeks  before  I  saw  Dr.  I^man  Abbott's  article  in  the  Century, 
"  Danger  Ahead,"  in  which  the  phrase  is  used  for  precisely  the 
same  purpose  I  have  used  it.  Another  oft-quoted  passage  is 
used  to  characterize  these  teachings  by  the  Nation  reviewer  of 
Sumner's  Collected  Essays :  "  The  good  old  rule,  the  simple 
plan,  That  they  should  take  who  have  the  power,  And  they 
should  keep  who  can."  ] 

I  regret  to  have  to  quote  Mr.  Spencer  in  this  connection. 


SeC.  SI."]  NEGLECT  OP  THE  POOR.  137 

He  maintains  that  the  rule  of  sympathy  which  holds  in  the 
family  is  altogether  out  of  place  in  the  State.  Here  the  law 
of  selection  under  the  struggle  for  existence  should  obtain  in 
order  that  the  fittest  shall  prevail  for  the  good  of  society.  Ho 
thinks  this  so  obvious  that  an  apology  is  needed  for  naming  it. 
He  saj-s :  "Arid  yet,  strange  to  say,  now  that  this  truth  is 
recognized  by  most  cultivated  people — now  that  the  beneficent 
working  of  the  survival  of  the  fittest  has  been  so  impressed  on 
them  that,  much  more  than  people  in  past  times,  they  might 
be  expected  to  hesitate  before  neutralizing  its  action — now 
more  than  ever  before  in  the  history  of  the  world  are  they 
doing  all  they  can  to  further  survival  of  the  unfittest  (Man  vs. 
State,  69). 

I  cannot  make  out  just  what  this  passage  means.  It  seems 
to  have  in  view  a  state  of  things  that  cannot  exist  in  civil- 
ization. Efforts  will  be  made  to  prevent  people,  however 
worthless,  from  starving  to  death  and  from  dying  in  crowds 
amidst  filth  and  disease.  The  law  of  the  woods  cannot  be  en- 
forced here,  and  if  it  could,  it  would  prove  fatal  to  civilization. 
In  taking  measures  for  the  survival  of  the  unfittest,  the  fittest 
may  be  actually  taking  measures  for  their  own  preservation. 
If  the  passage  has  reference  to  the  operation  of  the  economical 
laws,  then  is  there  in  it  an  assumption  that  is  greatly  in  need 
of  proof.  The  assumption  is  :  Under  unchecked  conflict  and 
strife  in  the  woods,  the  fittest  survive  and  multiply,  making 
the  race  viable  and  vigorous  ;  therefore,  the  same  results  must 
follow  in  society  under  the  struggle  to  get  on  in  the  world,  and 
"  those  shoulderings  aside  of  the  weak  by  the  strong  which 
leave  so  many  in  '  shallows  and  in  miseries ' "  (Social  Statics, 
323),  arc  to  be  regarded  as  means  of  improving  the  condition 
of  society  under  the  working  of  this  natural  law.  The  assump- 
tion is  that  those  who  are  too  weak  to  maintain  their  ground 
in  society,  naturally  go  to  the  wall  and  are  eliminated,  as  the 
brutes  are  that  prove  to  be  too  weak  to  maintain  their  ground 
in  a  state  of  nature.  Is  this  the  case,  however  ?  Is  it  the  law 
of  population  that  the  economically  strong  in  society  multiply 


138  GOVERNMENTAL  INTERFERENCE.  [C%O/X  VI. 

faster  than  the  economically  weak  ?  Is  not  the  reverse  true  ? 
The  very  strongest  in  an  economical  sense — those  who  fill  the 
highest  places  in  society — do  very  little  toward  multiplying 
and  filling  the  earth  with  a  vigorous  and  prosperous  race. 
Such  families  are  liable  to  become  sterile  and  run  out.  Then 
take  the  great  well-to-do  middle  classes  ;  —  are  they  remarkable 
for  prolificacy?  .  They  might,  indeed,  raise  very  large  families 
with  a  fair  degree  of  comfort,  but  generally  they  do  not ;  and 
it  is  noticeable  that  generally  in  this  class,  the  size  of  the  fam- 
ily bears  no  proportion,  unless  it  be  an  inverse  proportion,  to 
the  means  of  supporting  a  family.  Why  this  want  of  prolificacy 
among  the  well-to-do  ?  They  have  a  position  in  society  which 
they  want  to  maintain,  and  they  can  do  this  better  with  small 
than  with  large  families.  But,  whatever  may  be  the  cause, 
we  know  that,  in  this  country  at  least,  the  fairly  well-to-do  are 
not  prolific  as  a  rule  and  are  constantly  becoming  less  so. 
How  is  it  with  the  lowest  strata  of  all  ?  Go  to  the  negro  huts 
in  the  South  and  to  the  habitations  of  poor  whites  everywhere 
to  see  broods  of  children.  "  The  poor  man  for  babies,"  says 
the  proverb.  Why  so  ?  People  who  feel  themselves  reduced 
to  the  verge  of  want  become  reckless  in  the  most  important 
concerns  of  life,  they  marry  earty  and  breed  without  stint.  It 
is  these  that  arc  filling  up  the  earth,  so  that  Mr.  Spencer's 
main  prop  to  the  doctrine  that  it  should  be  in  society  as  it  is 
in  the  woods,  falls  to  the  ground.  This  assumption  runs 
through  Mr.  Spencer's  entire  treatment  of  the  subject.  He 
opposes  taxing  the  taxable  for  charitable  purposes  because  it 
makes  the  struggle  of  life  harder  for  the  worthy  to  bear,  and 
weakens  their  power  to  multiply,  while  it  adds,  as  it  is  in- 
tended to  add,  to  such  power  among  the  "  good  for  nothings." 
He  wants  such  return  to  the  labor  of  the  worthy  man  "  as  will 
enable  him  to  thrive  and  rear  offspring  in  proportion  to  the 
superiorities  which  make  him  valuable  to  himself  and  others 
(Man  vs.  State,  p.  66);  and  he  asks,  "Will  any  one  contend 
that  no  mischief  will  result  if  the  lowly  endowed  are  enabled 
to  thrive  and  multiply  as  much  as,  or  more  than,  the  highly 


SeC.  51.]  NEGLECT  OF  THE  POOR.  139 

endowed  ?"  It  is  the  highly  endowed,  as  Mr.  Spencer  has 
elsewhere  shown  us  (Biology,  Vol.  II,  403-411)  that  do  not 
greatly  multiply. 

Mr.  Spencer's  treatment  of  this  subject  involves  several 
assumptions  :  1.  If  special  care  is  not  taken  to  preserve  the 
good-for-nothings,  they  will  not  multiply.  2.  Government  is  an 
arbitrary  and  not  a  natural  institution.  3.  Whatever  comes 
about  by  the  action  of  the  social  forces  independent  of  the 
government  is  in  the  order  of  nature :  Whence  it  follows 
that  society  is  right  enough  in  the  conduct  of  its  forces  if  the 
government  will  only  let  it  alone.  That  form  of  interference 
against  which  Mr.  Spencer's  complaint  seems  mainly  to  lie,  is 
that  which  aims  at  some  kind  of  good  work  b}*  direct  legisla- 
tion. Now,  we  know  very  well  that  governments  may  do  a 
great  deal  of  harm  by  injudicious  laws  of  this  class  ;  but  we 
fear  it  may  also  do  a  great  deal  of  harm  by  using  direct  leg- 
islation to  make  the  aggressively  strong  stronger  still.  This 
has  been  the  leading  form  of  governmental  wrong-doing  in  all 
times  past,  and  there  is  still  a  great  deal  of  it.  This  is  seen 
in  the  granting  of  franchises  which  may  be  made  by  unscrupu- 
lous men  to  deepen  the  inequalities  of  life.  And  again,  we  fear 
that  selfish  and  strong  men  may  do  by  voluntary  association 
what  animals  cannot  do :  they  may  take  an  economical  advant- 
age which  the  many  have  not  the  power  by  voluntary  associa- 
tion to  resist,  thus  illustrating  those  "  shoulderings  aside  of  the 
weak  by  the  strong  which  leave  so  many  '  in  shallows  and  in 
miseries '  "  to  become  reckless  in  marriage  and  in  multiplying. 
These  are  the  perversions  and  abuses  of  power  that  make  the 
struggle  of  life  harder  for  the  worthy  to  bear ;  but  it  did  not 
appear  to  come  within  the  range  of  Mr.  Spencer's  treatment  of 
the  subject  even  to  mention  them. 

A  study  of  the  methods  of  these  business  combinations 
with  and  without  formal  franchises,  would  bring  out  at  once 
the  difference  between  men  and  animals  in  regard  to  the  course 
of  natural  selection.  Mr.  Spencer  protests  against  taking 
the  law  of  sympathy  in  the  family  as  the  law  for  guidance. 


140  GOVERNMENTAL  INTERFERENCE.  [Ckap.  VI. 

in  statesmanship ;  we  protest  against  taking  the  law  of  natural 
selection  among  animals  as  the  law  for  guidance  in  dealing 
with  human  society.  Among  animals  the  phenomenon  is 
limited  to  the  struggle  between  individuals  almost  wholly,  and 
the  survival  of  the  victor  is  almost  sure  to  be  the  survival  of  the 
fittest.  Among  men  the  morally  obnoxious,  those  having  least 
sympathy  and  sense  of  justice,  may  combine  against  the  more 
sympathetic  and  generous  to  prey  upon  them  like  vampires. 
The  survival  of  the  victors  in  such  cases,  when  viewed  by  high- 
er principles,  is  the  survival  of  the  unfittest ;  and,  if  they  mul- 
tiply as  Mr.  Spencer's  logic  assumes,  they  would  fill  the  earth 
with  moral  degeneracy.  Fortunately,  however,  their  natural  in- 
crease is  quite  limited,  and  by  a  happy  principle  of  compensa- 
tion, the  evil  done  is  avenged  by  the  extermination  of  such. 

To  neglect  the  weak  and  deteriorated  elements  in  society, 
would  result  in  reckless  multiplication  and  further  deteriora- 
tion in  the  general  tone  of  society.  It  is  the  multiplication  of 
the  worst  that  prevents  general  education  from  making  any 
considerable  progress.  The  only  hope  is  in  improving  the  con- 
ditions of  life  among  the  lowly  classes,  and  encouraging  them 
to  help  themselves.  Neglect  will  not  have  this  effect.  Only 
their  realization  of  the  fact  that  those  more  powerful  than 
themselves  feel  an  interest  in  them  and  are  earnestly  and 
cheerfully  devising  measures  to  enable  them  to  meet  by  their 
own  endeavors  under  just  conditions  the  hardships  of  life, — 
only  when  they  realize  this  will  they  lay  aside  the  feelings  of 
jealousy,  animosity,  and  desperation  now  stirred  in  them  by 
aristocratic  contempt,  and  acquire  that  sense  of  personal  worth 
which  is  necessary  to  growth  in  the  manly  elements  of  char- 
acter. It  seems  to  be  a  superficial  view  of  the  subject  that 
supposes  a  virtue  in  natural  selection  where  nothing  is  natural, 
and  where  the  greatest  accessions  to  human  freedom  have  been 
achieved  for  the  many  by  binding  the  self-selected  few  in  the 
chains  of  law. 

It  is  true,  the  doctrine  of  selection  has  a  certain  bearing  on 
the  movements  of  society.  All  the  social  forces  are  acting 


SeC.  51]  NEGLECT  OP  THE  POOR.  141 

under  resistance ;  and,  when  the  contest  is  between  legal  and 
personal  government,  the  survival  of  the  fittest  appears  to  be 
establishing  more  and  more  the  legal  control  of  those  agents 
in  society  that  are  most  given  to  the  abuse  of  their  privileges. 
History  shows  that  in  the  struggle  for  existence  there  has  been 
some  weeding  out  of  unfit  institutions ;  but  the  doctrine  of 
natural  selection  has  no  application,  among  men  as  among 
animals,  to  the  work  of  weeding  out  the  unfittest  as  individ- 
uals. I  had  supposed  that  it  was  the  general  opinion  among 
scientific  men,  that,  since  the  devising  brain  and  supple  hand 
came  into  use,  natural  selection  had  little  or  nothing  to  do 
with  the  further  evolution  of  the  man  as  an  individual,  but 
only  as  a  part  of  society.  The  devices  of  a  genius  were  for  the 
good  of  his  kindred  as  well  as  of  himself,  and  the  extension 
of  such  devices  to  others  was  only  limited  by  the  measure  of 
ability  to  understand  and  adopt  them.  The  strong  arms  of 
the  sj-mpathetic  protected  their  fellows  as  well  as  themselves  ; 
and  thus  it  was  that  evolution  affected  society  as  a  whole,  and 
not  the  individual,  except  as  he  constituted  a  part  of  that 
society.  The  peoples  strongest  in  survival  have  been  those 
who  were  able  to  combine  isolated  individual  powers  into  one 
for  the  good  of  the  whole  ;  and  such  combinations  require  not 
only  individual  intellect,  but  common  sj-nipathy  and  the 
restraint  of  present  impulse.  And  thus  it  is  that  the  principle 
of  selection  among  mankind  has  directly  acted  upon  institutions 
and  aggregates  of  people,  rather  than  on  isolated  individuals. 
In  society,  our  "lower  classes"  are  indispensable  to  the 
existence  of  the  "  higher  classes."  The  working  classes,  weak 
as  they  are  in  some  ways,  are  yet  strong  in  other  ways ;  and 
the  fabric  of  society  would  be  frail,  indeed,  were  it  not  for  the 
strength  they  bring  to  it.  If  this  view  be  correct,  it  would 
appear  to  be  the  duty  of  society  to  care  for  them — above  all 
things  to  be  just  to  them  in  the  higher  sense  of  justice,  that 
they  maj'  become  stronger  in  their  own  behalf,  and  by  their 
ver3r  independence  afford  additional  strength  and  safety  to  the 
general  structure  of  society. 


142  GOVERNMENTAL  INTERFERENCE.  [Chap.  VI. 

52.  ARE  THE  BEATEN  IN  LIFE  WORTH  CARING  FOR  ? — In 
looking  at  the  relation  of  classes  as  revealed  in  history,  in 
witnessing  what  their  relations  are  now,  and  in  seeing  the 
light  in  which  the  so-called  higher  classes  for  the  most  part 
regard  the  lower,  one  is  almost  led  to  inquire  whether  it  has 
not  been  in  the  order  of  things  for  the  greater  numbers  of 
mankind  to  be  in  many  ways  subordinate  to  a  smaller  number. 
It  is  true  that  the  masses  are  not  now  chattel  slaves,  nor  do 
they  appear  to  be  quite  as  much  as  formerly  "  food  for  powder," 
still  they  are  under  conditions  "cribbed,  cabined,  and  con- 
fined," creators  of  wealth  that  is  not  theirs,  of  comforts  and 
luxuries  they  cannot  have,  of  conditions  the}-  cannot  enjoy. 
And,  since  their  deprivations  can  be  traced  apparently  in  a 
large  measure  to  their  own  remissness  and  mismanagement, 
there  appears  to  be  room  for  the  question  whether  they  are 
worthy  of  the  solicitude  which  sympathetic  people  feel  for 
them.  Perhaps  the  cynic  who  lets  the  world  take  its  course 
without  the  least  effort  or  apparent  wish  to  change  it,  enjoj'ing 
the  defeats  equally  with  the  victories  in  life,  may  be  about 
right  after  all.  Perhaps  the  fine  classes  of  society  could  not 
exist  at  all,  if  they  had  not  a  substratum  of  coarseness  and 
vulgarity  to  rest  on.  Now,  while  it  is  probable  that  there 
always  will  be  classes  in  society,  it  hardty  seems  necessary  that 
there  shall  always  be  the  same  inequality  in  the  means  of 
enjoying  life.  While,  at  one  extreme,  there  is  too  much  for 
comfort,  at  the  other  extreme  there  is  not  enough.  Long  hours 
of  hard  labor  with  uncertainty  of  employment  make  life  so 
meagre  and  wretched  for  the  many  that  only  beings  of  coarse 
and  simple  tastes  can  endure  it.  Between  these  and  the  cult- 
ured there  is  a  great  gap  which  prevents  an  exchange  of  the 
sympathy  and  good  offices  of  a  common  humanity.  By  this 
the  higher  are  deprived  of  an  experience  that  is  needful  to 
make  up  a  greater  fulness  of  life  than  the)*  now  have.  And 
so  far  as  the  poor  lose  the  power  of  self-support,  they  become 
something  more  than  a  social  vacuity  without  power  to  bless ; 
they  become  a  positive  burden  on  the  well-to-do,  and  bring 


Sec.  52.~]    ARE  THE  BEATEN  IN  LIFE  WORTH  CARING  FOR  ?        143 

upon  the  whole  social  body  a  painful  experience.  The  higher 
cannot  divorce  themselves  from  the  lower;  and  hence  it 
becomes  the  interest  of  every  class,  however  independent  it 
may  feel,  that  all  classes  shall  have  such  conditions  of  life  as 
are  necessary  to  the  greatest  practical  fulness  of  manhood  and 
womanhood.  It  is  for  this  reason  that  the  preying  of  the  strong 
upon  the  weak,  whether  in  the  physical  or  economical  sphere, 
is  as  short-sighted  and  suicidal  as  any  gratification  of  a  pre- 
sent impulse  which  ends  in  suffering  the  penalty  of  a  violated 
law. 

Mr.  Herbert  Spencer  discusses  this  subject  with  clear  insight 
and  a  noble  spirit  in  his  work  on  Social  Statics.  At  the  close 
of  a  convincing  statement,  in  which  he  maintains  that,  as  all 
the  classes  in  society  mutually  affect  one  another,  their  moral 
status  must  be  very  much  alike,  he  says  :  "Thus  the  alleged 
homogeneity  of  national  character  is  abundantly  exemplified. 
And  so  long  as  the  assimilating  influences  productive  of  it 
continue  to  work,  it  is  folly  to  suppose  any  one  grade  of  a 
community  can  be  morally  different  from  the  rest.  In  which- 
ever rank  you  see  corruption,  be  assured  it  equally  pervades 
all  ranks — be  assured  it  is  the  symptom  of  a  bad  social 
diathesis.  "Whilst  the  virus  of  depravity  exists  in  one  part  of 
the  body  politic,  no  other  part  can  remain  healthy"  (p.  232). 
It  is  in  accordance  with  this  principle  that  American  society 
has  become  "  materialized  "  from  top  to  bottom.  The  facilities 
for  "  making  money  "  have  brought  about  a  general  furor  of 
acquisition,  and  the  mushroom  millionaire  is  the  beau  ideal 
of  the  youthful  American.  His  name  is  in  all  the  newspapers, 
and  we  envy  him  his  gains  when  we  condemn  his  methods. 
These  plutocratic  tendencies  exercise  a  debauching  influence 
at  both  ends  of  the  social  scale,  and  the  middle  is  far  from 
being  exempt  from  it.  With  such  a  spirit  pervading  all  the 
leading  forces  of  society,  it  is  easy  enough  to  forget  the 
beaten,  and  feel  that,  whatever  may  become  of  them,  the 
superior  grades  of  society  will  suffer  no  harm.  But,  on  Mr. 
Spencer's  showing  of  the  moral  homogeneity  of  society,  this 


144  GOVERNMENTAL  INTERFERENCE.  [Chap.  VI. 

is  a  mistake,  and  all  must  suffer  together.  Then,  there  is 
reason  enough,  why  all  possible  measures  should  be  taken  to 
prevent  the  impoverishment  and  degradation  of  the  "lower 
strata "  in  society.  This  hardly  indicates  a  policy  of  laissez 
faire  under  which  the  strong  shoulder  aside  the  weak  and 
leave  them  struggling  with  adversity  in  the  face  of  bad 
example,  and  damaging  the  tone  of  the  entire  society.  Have 
not  just  men  something  to  do  here  in  regard  to  the  course 
governmental  action  shall  take  ? 

53.  THE  TYRANNY  OP  MAJORITIES. — Those  extremists  who 
would  eviscerate  government  and  prepare  it  for  survival  as  a 
safe  and  inoffensive  cadavre,  appear  to  be  quite  unnecessarily 
alarmed  about  tyranny  in  the  assumption  by  the  State  of  new 
functions.  When  government  was  much  more  simple  than  now, 
its  despotism  was  even  greater.  A  government's  assumption  of 
new  functions  is  not  necessarily  an  infringement  on  the  sphere 
of  individual  action.  On  the  contrary  the  sphere  of  individual 
action  may  enlarge  while  the  functions  of  the  government  are 
extending  into  new  fields.  Not  only  this,  but  such  extension  of 
governmental  supervision  may  become  absolutely  necessary  to 
prevent  the  multiplication  of  undue  interferences  with  personal 
rights  by  the  "bullies"  of  finance.  The  further  civilization 
advances,  the  more  intimate  and  closely  related  do  human 
relations  become,  and  hence  the  necessity  of  a  strong  and 
thoroughly  organized  head  for  the  adjustment  of  relations 
among  the  diversified  factors  of  society.  To  illustrate :  Our 
railroad  system  has  established  new  conditions,  to  which  all 
legitimate  business  must  conform  itself  on  the  presumption 
that  railroad  management  will  be  uniform  and  fair.  But  when 
contracts  arc  given  favorite  shippers  at  15  cents  per  hundred 
from  Cincinnati  to  New  York,  and  then  freights  suddenly 
raised  on  all  other  shippers  to  31£  cents  per  hundred,  thus 
weighting  the  latter  with  shackles  which  prevent  the  fulfilling 
of  their  contracts  ; — or,  again,  when  the  pool  suddenly  raises 
freight,  as  in  1882,  50  per  cent  from  New  York  to  Chicago,  or, 
as  in  1880,  200  per  cent  from  Chicago  to  New  York;— there  is 


Sec.  53. ]  THE  TYRANNY  OP  MAJORITIES.  145 

in  such  railroad  management  a  violation  of  justice  and  u 
restriction  of  individual  liberty.  If  the  government  can  pre- 
vent such  arbitrary  business  management,  it  will  at  the  same 
time  prevent  the  violation  of  justice  and  the  restriction  of 
business  freedom  which  results  from  such  violation.  When- 
ever one  party  asserts  so  much  freedom  as  to  interfere  with 
the  equal  rights  of  others,  he  should  be  summoned  before  the 
proper  tribunal  to  be  dealt  with  in  the  interests  of  common 
justice.  And,  if  civilized  government  has  no  such  tribunal,  it 
is  at  fault,  and  should  establish  one.  Such  exercise  of  gov- 
ernmental power  becomes  necessary  to  individual  freedom,  and 
is  not,  as  Laissez  Faire  assumes,  an  abridgement  of  it.  I  am 
conscious  that  this  is  but  common  place,  but  I  reassert  it  to 
say  that  we  have  the  high  authority  of  Herbert  Spencer  for 
this  view  of  the  case. 

There  is  one  point  on  which  the  opposite  extremists  quite 
agree.  Those  who  would  reduce  the  government  almost  to  a 
nullity  are  apt  to  lump  together  all  acts  of  governmental  in- 
terference and  put  them  under  ban  in  common.  Thus,  in  a 
recent  review  in  a  high-toned  journal,  of  Mr.  Spencer's  work, 
"  The  Man  versus  the  State,"  the  granger  action  against  rail- 
road extortion  and  discrimination  in  the  West  is  named  along 
with  sumptuary  prohibition,  as  if  both  were  equally  and  in  like 
manner  violations  of  personal  liberty.  In  the  same  waj-,  those 
who  look  with  a  superstitious  reverence  to  the  State  as  the 
source  of  "the  chief  good"  and  the  corrector  of  all  evil,  lump 
together  all  forms  of  governmental  interference,  and  assume 
that  if  any  one  form  is  salutary,  all  the  other  forms  must  be. 
That  is,  if  it  is  right  for  the  State  to  prevent  the  adulteration 
of  food,  it  is  equally  right  to  forbid  to  all  the  use  of  alcoholic 
beverages  and  stop  their  manufacture  by  destroying  without 
compensation  industries  which  have  been  honorable  (as  wine- 
making)  since  the  beginning  of  civilization,  and  which  have  all 
along  been  carried  on  under  the  protection  of  the  State.  The 
confounding  of  unlike  things  in  the  first  case  given  comes  from 
the  plutocratic  bias  ;  in  the  other  case,  it  comes  from  the  vague 


146  GOVERNMENTAL  INTERFERENCE.  [Chap.  VI. 

thinking  which  accompanies  an  overwrought  condition  of  the 
sympathies. 

Now,  we  do  not  believe  that,  under  governmental  action  on 
such  matters,  this  confounding  of  things  so  unlike  is  going  to 
occur  to  a  very  large  extent,  or  to  be  kept  up  long  at  a  time 
in  any  direction.  Such  action  can  take  place  only  under  re- 
sistance, and,  when  it  takes  a  wrong  course,  it  will  fail 
of  execution  like  "  prohibition,"  or  be  repealed  like  the  laws 
providing  secondary  punishments  for  capital  crimes.  But  the 
fact  that  the  principle  of  interference  is  liable  to  be  misunder- 
stood and  misapplied,  is  no  proof  that  it  is  not  valid,  no  reason 
why  it  should  not  be  acted  on.  Every  correct  principle  of  action 
is  liable  to  abuse.  Mr.  Spencer  admits  of  such  restrictions  on 
the  individual  as  are  "needful  for  preventing  him  from  directly 
or  indirectly  aggressing  on  his  fellows — needful,  that  is,  for 
maintaining  the  liberties  of  his  fellows  against  his  invasions 
of  them :  restraints  which  are,  therefore,  to  be  distinguished 
as  negatively  coercive,  not  positively  coercive"  (Man  vs.  State, 
16).  This  would  warrant  the  governmental  regulation  of  rail- 
roads and  rings  when  they  establish  monopoly  by  breaking 
down  competition.  But  it  is  difficult  to  understand  what  ob- 
jectionable restriction  on  the  individual  would  be  imposed,  for 
example,  by  a  system  of  national  education.  There  must  be 
rules  and  restraints  even  in  voluntary  systems  of  education.  It 
is  difficult  to  undertand  whose  liberty  would  be  offensively 
abridged  by  protecting  women  and  children  against  long  hours 
and  unhealthy  conditions  in  manufactories.  The  tyranny  of 
the  employer  and  of  the  husband  and  father  might  be  abated 
in  the  interest  of  common  humanity,  that  is  all.  If  the  State 
should  take  telegraphy  out  of  the  hands  of  a  "  financial  free- 
booter "  who  has  secured  good  dividends  on  stock  two-thirds 
water,  and  should  furnish  the  people  with  telegraphing  facil- 
ities at  cost,  a  burden  would  be  lifted  from  he  entire  public, 
and  business  freedom  would  have  wider  range  under  better 
business  conditions.  Nobody  would  be  hurt  by  such  measures 
of  governmental  interference  or  management,  except  the  ex- 


Sec.  53, .]  THE  TYRANNY  OP  MAJORITIES.  147 

tortionist,  and  he  has  no  more  right  to  exemption  from  the 
correcting  hand  of  government  than  the  robber  or  the  slave 
monger. 

Most  of  the  cases  in  which  the  government  assumes  to  act 
for  the  general  good,  are  not  such  as  are  determined  by  mere 
majorities.  They  are  usually  undertaken  by  a  sort  of  common 
consent,  not  even  provoking  criticism  from  the  party  out  of 
power.  Our  own  Interior  Department  with  its  numerous  rami- 
fications, of  recent  institution,  is  a  case  in  point.  At  any  rate, 
the  assumption  of  a  new  regulative  agency,  if  not  by  unani- 
mous consent,  is  usual!}-  by  thousands  against  hundreds; 
and  we  have  Mr.  Spencer's  authority  for  giving  preference  to 
the  thousands  rather  than  to  the  hundreds  (Social  Statics,  221). 
The  battle  has  alwa}*s  been  fought  before  there  is  an  attempt 
to  put  the  innovation  into  a  practical  form.  The  great  diffi- 
cult}-, in  this  country  at  least,  is  in  getting  regulative  instru- 
mentalities established,  even  after  the  desire  has  become  al- 
most unanimous  to  have  them  established.  This  is  very  plainly 
suggested  by  the  speeches  of  congressmen  on  regulating  rail- 
road management.  And  the  government  will  never  assume  the 
ownership  and  control  of  telegraph  lines  till  there  is  at  least 
ten  in  favor  of  it  to  one  against  it — that  one  being  a  doctri- 
naire or  an  interested  stockholder.  This  alarm  about  the  ty- 
ranny of  majorities  has  little  more  than  a  theoretical  founda- 
tion ;  it  is  the  tyranny  of  the  banded  minorities  that  is  stealth- 
ily deepening  the  inequalities  of  life  and  preparing  trouble 
for  the  future. 

It  is  not  at  all  likely  that  the  difficulties  of  this  problem 
will  everywhere  be  dealt  with  in  the  same  manner.  In  the 
smaller  nationalities  of  Europe  there  is  a  greater  drift  than  in 
this  country  to  State  ownership  and  management.  This  is 
seen  in  their  dealing  with  railroads  and  telegraphs.  (Cyclopae- 
dia of  Political  Science,  Art.  Railways  by  Simon  Sterne.  Also, 
C.  F.  Adams'  work  on  Railroad  Problems.)  In  this  very  much 
larger  country  of  ours,  this  tendency  will  doubtless  not  be  so 

strong.     The  mind  hesitates  in  view  of  the  tremendous  exec- 
14 


148  GOVERNMENTAL  INTERFERENCE.  [Chap.  VI. 

utive  machinery  necessary  to  manage  the  business  of  our  great 
lines  of  commerce,  travel,  and  intelligence.  Some  of  these  ma}' 
be  taken  in  hand  by  the  government.  The  telegraph  system 
probably  ought  to  be  ;  but,  generally,  it  may  be  expected  that 
the  government  will  establish  only  supervision,  allowing  the 
management  to  remain  in  charge  of  the  companies.  Wherever 
monopoly  is  established,  the  State  must  interpose.  It  is 
probable  that,  under  the  tendencies  toward  large  establish- 
ments under  one  head,  we  shall  have  a  body  of  exclusive  in- 
dustries regulated  by  the  States  and  general  government,  so  as 
to  prevent  as  far  as  possible  the  abuse  of  power  on  the  part 
of  corporations,  combinations,  syndicates,  and  rings. 

The  great  difficulty  in  this  matter  is  to  be  found  in  the 
power  which  selfish  interests  are  acquiring  over  the  govern- 
ment, in  order  to  thwart  the  attempts  made  to  inaugurate  a 
people's  policy.  The  banking,  railway,  and  high  tariff  powers 
are  especially  strong  in  Congress,  and  some  of  them  are  always 
strong  in  the  administrative  departments  at  Washington.  It 
is  difficult,  indeed,  under  the  present  outlook,  to  conceive 
what  may  be  the  remedy  for  the  perversion  of  method  in  pop- 
ular government.  I  would  be  glad  to  feel  assured  that  there 
is  an  efficacious  remedy;  and  I  would  cheerfully  do  the  little 
I  may  be  able  to  do,  to  strengthen  the  tendencies  which  bear 
against  the  prevalence  of  class  rule.  The  plain  statement  of 
the  case  is  that  the  people  do  not  properly  share  in  the  benig- 
nities of  the  government,  because  of  their  own  ignorance  and 
apathy  in  presence  of  aggressive  agencies  which  they  ought  to 
resist.  Certain  classes  secure  government  favors  and  the  people 
are  made  to  pay  for  them  without  knowing  it.  1  do  not  like  to 
settle  down  in  the  conviction  that  this  is  always  to  be  so. 

In  studying  the  relation  of  the  stronger  to  the  weaker  classes 
in  society  and  the  relation  of  reproduction  to  social  condition, 
together  with  the  means  whereby  certain  classes  have  acquired 
and  now  maintain  their  supremacy,  we  may  find  perhaps  an 
indication  of  the  line  along  which  endeavor  must  be  made  in 
order  to  secure  the  best  results  for  society  in  general. 


Sec.  54-~\      EQUITY  IN  THE  DISTRIBUTION  OF  WEALTH.  149 

NOTE  TO  SEC.  51. — There  are  two  leading  conditions  especially  favor- 
able to  the  natural  increase  of  human  heings.  One  of  these  conditions 
is  to  be  found  in  new  countries.  A  living  is  here  easily  secured,  and 
the  standing  of  members  in  society  easy  to  maintain,  because  aristoc- 
racy has  not  yet  made  its  appearance.  Under  such  circumstances  there 
is  no  stint  on  multiplication,  marriage  takes  place  early  in  life  and 
families  are  uniformly  large.  There  is  room  inviting  population,  and 
the  supply  is  forthcoming.  This  condition  of  prolificacy  is  recognized 
by  Montesquieu,  Adam  Smith,  J.  R.  McCulloch,  and  many  others;  and 
Mr.  Spencer  may  have  been  thinking  of  it  when  he  wrote  his  chapter 
on  "  The  Sins  of  Legislators." 

The  other  condition  referred  to  is  that  which  we  find  usually  in  man- 
ufacturing districts  and  among  the  less  ambitious  classes  everywhere. 
Here  also  marriages  are  early  and  families  large.  That  this  is  true,  a 
little  observation  will  convince  anyone.  Roscher  says  that  "nothing 
leads  men  so  much  into  contracting  reckless  marriages  as  the  total 
absence  of  any  prospect  of  amelioration  of  their  condition  in  the  fu- 
ture." And  again:  "  Every  class  multiplies  the  more  rapidly  the  less, 
according  to  its  notions,  is  required  to  establish  a  family."  Joseph 
Gamier  observes:  "Over-population  is  generally  produced  by  misery, 
the  essential  characteristic  of  which  is  improvidence,  which  leads  to 
premature  marriages."  According  to  Thornton,  "Misery,  the  inevit- 
able effect  and  symptom  of  over-population,  seems  to  be  likewise  its 
principal  promoter."  And  he  thinks  it  will  "be  found  that  wher- 
ever population  has  received  an  undue  influence,  the  people  have  been 
first  rendered  reckless  by  privation."  This  condition  of  rapid  increase 
in  population  could  hardly  have  been  present  to  Mr.  Spencer's  con- 
sciousness when  he  wrote  his  chapter  on  "  The  Sins  of  Legislators." 


CHAPTER  VII. 
THE  RADICAL  WRONG  AND  ITS  REMEDY. 

54.  EQUITY  IN  THE  DISTRIBUTION  OP  WEALTH. — Says  my 
critic :  "  General  results  are  against  you ;  see  the  general 
prosperity  everywhere — never  was  the  world  so  well  off; — why 
all  this  complaint  ?  If  corporations,  syndicates,  rings,  com- 
binations, were  getting  more  than  their  share,  and  getting  it 
out  of  the  masses  of  the  people,  we  should  not  have  such  gen- 
eral prosperity; — jou  must  be  mistaken."  Let  us  look  over 
this  matter  in  a  general  way,  and  see.  The  results  you  speak 


150  HE  EADICAL  WRONG  AND  ITS  REMEDY.    [.Chap.  VII. 

of  by  no  means  set  aside  the  positive  proofs  of  economic  ad- 
vantage unjustly  pressed  by  the  strong  to  the  detriment  of  the 
weak.  Conditions  may  be  such — are  such,  indeed,  that  the 
public  can  stand  a  great  deal  of  bleeding  without  depletion. 
A  robust  man,  well  nourished  and  saving  of  his  strength,  may 
suffer  blood-letting  year  after  j'ear,  and  still  remain  a  robust 
man ;  in  like  manner  those  among  the  masses  who  are  indus- 
trious, well-managing  and  economical,  may  stand  the  habitual 
loss  of  substance  by  covert  extortion,  and  still  prosper.  But 
let  the  man  who  has  lost  blood  become  in  some  way  overtaxed 
by  exertion  under  exposure,  and  he  may  suddenly  succumb ; 
it  is  just  so  with  those  who  are  bled  in  business.  Every 
period  of  commercial  depression  sends  thousands  down  the 
social  scale  who  would  not  have  gone  down  but  for  the  con- 
stant bleeding  they  are  compelled  to  endure. 

I  am  well  aware  that  statisticians — Giffen,  Mulhall,  Laugh- 
lin,  have  produced  the  solid  figures  to  show  that  there  is  a 
general  levelling  up  in  the  economic  scale  ;  that  the  well-to-do 
classes  are  not  only  gaining  in  relative  numbers,  but  are  be- 
coming constantly  better  off,  while  the  lower  classes  are  rising 
under  conditions  of  general  improvement.  Let  us  admit  that 
there  is  no  neglected  factor  in  these  statistical  showings,  and 
that  all  classes  are  improving  in  opportunity  and  condition ; 
then  the  query  occurs,  are  the  lower  classes  gaining  as  much 
as  they  should  gain  under  the  increased  facilities  of  modern 
life  for  the  production  of  wealth  ? 

In  some  industries  one  man  will  produce  as  much  now  as 
one  hundred  could  fifty  years  ago,  and  generally,  there  has 
been  an  immense  multiplication  of  human  power  over  the 
forces  of  nature.  Have  the  masses  received  their  full  benefit 
of  this  increase  of  industrial  power  ?  They  drink  more  tea 
and  coffee,  eat  more  meat,  and  are  better  housed, — and  their 
wages  are  higher,  we  are  told.  But  have  these  wages  gained 
at  all  in  proportion  to  the  increased  facilities  of  production  and 
advantages  which  some  other  classes  receive  therefrom  ?  If  so, 
why  have  millionaires  sprung  up,  in  later  times,  almost  like 


Sec.  54.~\      EQUITY  IN  THE  DISTRIBUTION  OP  WEALTH.  151 

mushrooms,  in  a  night  ? — millionaires  commanding  hundreds 
of  millions,  while  it  requires  whole  columns  of  fine  statistics 
to  prove  that  the  laboring  classes  have  gained  anything? 
Even  if  the  statistics  show  that  there  has  been  improvement 
in  the  condition  of  the  working  masses,  they  do  not  show 
enough ;  they  should  show  that  this  improvement  in  wages, 
living,  &c.,  has  kept  pace  with  the  facilities  for  the  production 
of  wealth. 

While  the  statisticians  are  at  it,  let  them  look  a  little  further 
in  this  field.  The  virgin  lands — millions  of  acres  of  fresh  soil 
with  all  its  stores  of  native  fertility,  in  America  and  Australia, 
have  been  contributing  to  the  general  wealth  of  the  civilized 
world  for  the  last  half  century  as  they  never  did  before.  This 
advantage  must  be  added  to  that  of  improved  machinery  for 
manufacturing  and  transportation.  These  statisticians  tell  us 
that  wages  have  greatly  increased  in  Great  Britain  during  the 
last  half  century;  but  would  the}7  have  so  increased  if  there 
had  been  no  new  countries  to  draw  off  the  surplus  popula- 
tion ?  If  there  had  been  no  migration,  all  these  millions  would 
have  remained  competing  for  work  in  the  old  county-;  and 
every  economist  not  blinded  by  some  optimistic  haze  knows 
that  under  such  competition,  wages  would  be  far  lower,  and 
the  laboring  classes  far  worse  off,  than  they  are.  Then  the 
rise  in  wages  has  been  due,  not  only  to  improvement  in  ma- 
chinery and  the  cheapening  of  products,  but  to  the  emigration 
of  surplus  population  and  the  development  of  resources  in  the 
new  countries.  Emigration  has  not  only  relieved  the  tensity 
of  competition  for  wages,  but  it  has  helped  develop  the  new 
countries,  and  so  helped  the  laborers  who  remained  at  home 
to  cheaper  living,  thus  contributing  doubly  to  increase  their 
wages.  Machinery  may  not  improve  as  much  in  the  near 
future  as  it  has  improved  in  the  near  past ;  the  better  parts 
of  the  new  countries  are  rapidly  filling  up,  and,  when  full,  no 
more  surplus  from  a  population  increasing  as  rapidly  as  ever, 
can  be  drawn  off ;— what  will  be  the  condition  of  the  laborer 
then  ?  If  life  is  a  struggle  with  him  now,  what  will  it  be 


152  THE  RADICAL  WRONG  AND  ITS  REMEDY.      [Chap.  VII. 

then  ?  They  tell  us  that  the  laborer's  condition  is  not  only 
better  now,  but  that  it  will  continue  to  improve.  This  does  not 
follow  necessarily  from  the  fact  of  recent  improvements ;  the 
status  of  the  laborer  sometimes  goes  backward,  as  it  did  from 
the  16th  century  till  late  in  the  18th  century  (Sec.  5). 

There  is  some  question  about  the  real  character  of  those 
benefits  which  laboring  people  have  received.  Under  existing 
conditions,  the  higher  order  of  living  which  the  masses  may 
enjoy  has  its  drawbacks,  which  appear  very  conspicuously 
ever}'  season  of  commercial  depression,  when  these  people  by 
the  hundreds  of  thousands  arc  out  of  employment  and  out 
of  bread.  Then  it  is  that  their  higher  living  becomes  a  source 
of  suffering  and  discontent.  With  higher  living  there  needs 
to  be  steady  employment;  but,  with  the  increasing!}*  large  estab- 
lishments of  modern  industrial  life,  the  employment  of  labor- 
ers is  becoming  constantly  more  uncertain.  Because  of  higher 
living  the  stores  are  sooner  exhausted  when  there  is  no  fund 
with  which  to  replenish  them,  and  the  contrast  of  want  with 
plent}r  is  more  keenly  felt  It  is  in  this  country  that  this 
phase  of  the  situation  is  developing  itself  most  fully.  Besides 
the  absorption  of  smaller  into  larger  industrial  establishments, 
which,  as  a  cause  of  uncertainty  in  the  demand  for  labor,  can- 
not be  changed,  there  are  two  other  causes  of  uncertainly. 
These  two  are  especially  active  in  bringing  about  the  condi- 
tions of  forced  idleness  to  thousands  of  people  who  would  be 
glad  to  work.  The  first  of  these  causes  is  general ;  it  is  the 
constantly  increasing  purchasing  power  of  the  unit  of  value 
under  the  continued  operation  of  gold  monometallism.  I  have 
elsewhere  stated  how  this  depresses  business  and  bears  with 
severity  on  the  most  dependent  classes  (Sec.  27).  The  other 
cause  relates  especially  to  this  countr}- :  it  is  our  high  "  pro- 
tective tariff."  Protection  has  the  effect  of  stimulating  certain 
kinds  of  business  for  a  time.  This  makes  a  demand  for  labor- 
ers, and  it  is  partly  due  to  this  stimulus  that  the  influx  of  for- 
eigners into  this  country  has  been  so  great  during  the  last 
twenty  years.  Many  of  these  have  been  induced  to  come  here 


Sec.  54-~]         EQUITY  IN  THE  DISTRIBUTION  OP  WEALTH.  153 

to  supplant  striking  operatives,  and  were  promised  good  wages 
without  reduction,  which  promises  have  not  been  kept,  because, 
probably,  they  could  not  be;  and  now,  at  this  very  writing 
(July,  1885),  thousands  of  such  are  out  of  work  and  in  want. 
The  reaction  will  first  make  itself  painfully  felt  in  this  country, 
because  the  very  thing  which  relieves  the  old  countries  and 
helps  the  wage-earning  classes  there,  is  at  the  present  time 
weighting  us,  and  causing  a  decline  in  wages  here. 

Mr.  Carroll  D.  "Wright,  one  of  our  ablest  statisticians,  pre- 
sents the  figures  to  show  that  from  1860  to  1881  wages  had 
declined,  as  compared  with  the  prices  of  commodities.  He 
says  (Princeton  Keview,  July  1882):  '-From  1860  to  1878  there 
was  an  average  increase  of  wages  of  24.4  percent;  of  prices 
[cost  of  living],  of  14.9  per  cent.  From  1878  to  December, 
1881,  there  was  an  average  increase  in  wages  of  G.9  per  cent, 
and  in  prices  of  21  per  cent ;  and  covering  the  whole  period 
of  21  years,  there  was  an  average  increase  in  wages  of  31.2 
per  cent,  and  in  prices  of  41.3  per  cent.  That  is,  between 
1860  and  1881,  the  workingman  has  suffered  a  reduction  of  10 
per  cent  in  the  purchasing  power  of  his  wages,  and  this  be- 
tween a  dead  level  year  and  one  of  general  prosperity."  If 
the  laborer  was  worse  off  in  1881,  a  prosperous  year,  than  in 
1860,  what  are  we  to  think  of  his  condition  now,  in  1885, 
when  so  many  cannot  get  work  at  all,  and  so  many  others  only 
part  of  the  time  at  greatly  reduced  wages  ?  Does  this  look  as 
if  the  laboring  classes  were  getting  their  full  share  of  benefit 
from  the  improvement  of  machinery  and  the  development  of 
new  countries  ? 

I  shall  not  attempt  any  analysis  of  Dr.  Giffen's  figures.  The 
wages  laborers  may  get  per  day  or  per  week  is  becoming  less 
and  less  an  indication  of  what  laborers  really  earn  per  year. 
There  are  so  many  stoppages  to  let  the  demand  for  products 
catch  up  with  the  supply,  that  an  operative  never  knows  what 
hour  his  pay  will  stop.  That  laborers  are  putting  more  into 
savings  institutions  than  formerly,  is  largely  due  to  the  facil- 
ities for  safe  deposit  of  surplus  earnings  which  have  been  pro- 


154  THE  RADICAL  WRONG  AND  ITS  REMEDY.      [Chap.  VII. 

vided  in  European  countries,  and  to  the  stimulus  to  saving 
afforded  by  a  special  education  having  this  particular  object  in 
view.  Again,  Dr.  Giffen's  own  figures  show  that  in  England 
the  very  wealthy  are  increasing  in  numbers  far  more  rapidly 
than  the  well-to  do.  Those  whose  incomes  are  from  $2000  to 
$3000,  increased  less  than  250  per  cent  in  thirty-seven  years — 
from  1843  to  1880, — while  those  whose  incomes  are  from  $50,- 
000  to  $250,000,  increased  in  the  same  time  nearly  400  per 
cent,  and  those  with  incomes  above  $250,000  increased  850 
per  cent.  This  eminent  statistician  thinks  this  a  small  matter, 
however,  because  those  with  large  incomes  are  so  few !  He 
forgets  that  they  make  up  for  their  lack  of  numbers  in  the 
bulk  of  wealth  they  control.  In  1880,  there  were  785  persons 
with  incomes  from  $50,000  to  $250,000,  indicating  a  capital 
ranging  from  one  million  to  five  millions  each  ;  while  there 
were  68  persons  with  incomes  of  more  than  $250,000,  indica- 
ting a  capital  of  more  than  $5,000,000  each.  The  853  persons 
having  more  than  $50,000  income  received  one-eighth  of  the 
taxable  income  of  all  Great  Britain  with  a  population  of 
thirty-seven  millions.  Another  fact  to  be  noted  is  that  these 
large  incomes  include  little  or  nothing  comparatively  for  sala- 
ries, these  being  included  in  the  smaller  incomes ;  whence  it 
follows  that  even  these  figures  do  not  fully  show  the  rapid 
concentration  of  wealth  in  the  hands  of  the  few.  They  show 
a  good  deal,  however,  and  Dr.  Giffen's  plutocratic  bias  cannot 
conceal  the  fact  which  his  figures  so  plainly  reveal.  [I  learn 
that  Mr.  "Wallace  and  others  have  examined  Dr.  Giffen's  tables 
and  fully  exploded  his  inferences.  I  have  not  seen  these  crit- 
icisms ;  they  appear  to  have  been  much  less  extensively  circu- 
lated than  the  original  essay.] 

In  this  country  we  have  no  income  tax,  and,  I  believe,  no 
statistics  which  enable  us  to  determine  the  tendencies  toward 
the  concentration  of  wealth.  It  can  hardly  be  less  than  it  is 
in  England  ;  it  is  probably  greater,  owing  to  the  greater  suc- 
cess with  which  the  government  has  been  manipulated  for  the 
benefit  of  privileged  interests.  The  statistics  show  a  large  in- 


SeC.  54'~\       EQUITY  IN  THE  DISTRIBUTION  OP  WEALTH.  155 

crease  in  the  number  of  large  farms  and  a  falling  off  in  the 
number  of  small  farms.  This  tendency,  which  is  even  greater 
than  the  defective  statistics  show  (Reforms,  Sec.  12),  is  one  of 
the  significant  indications  of  the  times,  which  tells  us  something 
about  the  drift  of  acquisition.  There  is  not  a  figure  or  fact  to 
show  that  the  lower  and  middle  classes  are  receiving  their  fair 
share  of  the  advantages  afforded  by  the  new  industrial  forces. 
The  entire  drift  of  the  facts  and  figures  goes  to  show  that 
they  are  not  receiving  what  is  justly  their  due  according  to 
the  work  they  perform.  There  are  no  facts  and  figures  to 
offset  those  which  relate  to  the  monopoty  advantages  of  cor- 
porations and  rings  in  securing  a  part  of  the  earnings  of  those 
who  are  unable  to  combine  for  self-protection.  No  doubt  the 
rich  would  gain  in  property  much  more  rapidly  than  the 
merely  well-to-do,  even  without  governmental  aid ;  but,  when 
the  government  by  class  legislation  directly  and  indirectly 
favors  monopoly  interests,  it  aids  and  abets  the  concentration 
of  wealth  into  the  hands  of  the  few.  It  is  not  difficult  to  see 
the  operation  of  these  tendencies  ;  but,  in  this  3'oung  country, 
there  is  still  so  much  of  the  vigor  of  economical  youth  that 
the  people  do  not  feel  it  greatly  when  they  are  bled,  but  bled 
they  are  none  the  less.  Any  sapping  operation  going  on  so 
steadily  as  this  will  tell  in  time,  and  tell  fatally. 

I  agree  with  those  economists  who  hold  that  condition  of 
society  to  be  best  in  which  there  are  none  very  rich  and  as 
few  as  possible  very  poor.  With  the  least  contrast  in  condi- 
tion there  might  be  less  wealth,  but  there  would  be  more  con- 
tentment and  well-being.  "  A  country  is  infinitely  safer,  infi- 
nitel}7  stronger,  infinitely  more  capable  of  genuine  progress,  in 
which  the  many  are  in  comfort  and  content,  than  that  is  in 
which  much  wealth  is  accumulated,  but  the  process  of  dis- 
tribution is  artificial!}'  hindered  "  (Rogers).  But  a  state  of 
society  in  which  there  is  equitable  distribution  depends  on 
conditions  which  do  not  now  exist,  and  it  is  not  to  be  ex- 
pected. It  can  only  be  approximated  by  a  gradual  change  in 
the  education  of  the  great  masses  of  the  people ;  and  this  edu- 


156  THE  RADICAL  WRONG  AND  ITS  REMEDY.      [Chap.  VII. 

cation  must  be  had  before  the  people  can  discharge  fully  the 
duty  they  owe  to  themselves. 

55.  THE  MEANS  OP  REMEDYING  CLASS  INJUSTICE. — Now,  if 
the  masses  are  falling  short  in  the  advantages  which  civilization 
affords,  with  the  inevitable  prospect  of  falling  short  still  more 
as  civilization  progresses  and  the  new  countries  come  to  have 
less  and  less  room  for  surplus  population,  the  simple,  practical 
explanation  of  it  is  that  they  are  worsted  in  the  struggle  with 
the  stronger  classes.  And,  if  less  wealth  falls  to  the  lot  of  the 
many  than  should  do  so  in  equity,  then  is  there  more  wealth 
falling  into  the  hands  of  the  stronger  few  than  is  justly  theirs. 
What  comes  in  violation  of  equity  cannot  in  all  ways  thrive 
any  more  than  what  comes  in  violation  of  the  personal  liberty 
of  human  beings.  The  strong  financial  classes  use  combina- 
tion in  legal  and  voluntary  forms  to  carry  their  ends.  They 
arc  intelligent  and  comparatively  few,  and  can  readily  com- 
bine, while  the  masses  are  less  intelligent  and  so  numerous 
and  diverse  that  they  cannot  combine  for  successful  resistance. 
But  suppose  they  could  so  establish  voluntary  organization  as 
to  deal  efficiently  with  organized  and  aggressive  interests,  they 
could  only  do  so  by  virtue  of  the  very  power  which  govern- 
ment exercises.  When  we  have  effective  organization,  by 
whatever  name  called,  to  deal  with  tyrann}r  and  wrong,  we 
have  government.  Take,  for  example,  the  committees  of  pub- 
lic safety  which  have  been  established  from  time  to  time,  for 
dealing  with  certain  evils,  either  in  the  absence  of  efficient 
government,  or  in  case  the  actual  government  has  fallen  into 
corrupt  hands.  Boards  of  trade  make  their  laws  and  execute 
them ;  and  all  this  is  government. 

There  are  different  kinds  of  superstition  about  government : 
One  kind  regards  it  as  a  kind  of  omnipotence  that  is  capable 
of  doing  away  with  all  evil  and  securing  all  good.  The  other 
kind  regards  government  as  essentially  a  despotic  power  ever 
threatening  the  freedom  and  substance  of  the  people.  Accord- 
ing to  this  kind  of  superstition,  State  beaurocracy  is  essen- 
tially antagonistic  to  the  people ;  and,  as  it  is  organized,  ita 


Sec.  55.]      THE  MEANS  OP  REMEDYING  CLASS  INJUSTICE.          157 

encroachments  on  right  cannot  be  resisted,  and,  therefore,  the 
remedy  for  this  growing  evil  is  to  do  away  with  beaurocracy, 
and  shrink  up  the  government  into  as  small  a  compass  as  pos- 
sible. There  may  be  some  plausibility  in  this  extreme  view. 
Government  officials,  like  other  high-toned  classes,  are  apt  to 
cohere  under  the  class  bias,  as  if  thc}r  were  superior  and 
entitled  to  privileges  which  the  common  herd  of  mankind 
should  not  have.  But  so  far  as  this  state  of  things  exists,  it 
must  be  regarded  as  an  incidental  and  not  as  an  essential  ele- 
ment of  government.  It  exists  now  to  a  certain  extent,  be- 
cause it  has  a  secure  basis  in  the  ignorance  and  apathy  of  the 
people  in  general.  "With  more  intelligence  and  interest  among 
the  people,  the  official  classes  would  be  made  to  feel  a  greater 
responsibility  to  the  reputed  source  of  power — the  people. 
Intelligent  criticism  among  an  intelligent  people  who  do  the 
voting,  would  be  a  terror  which  no  presuming  official  could 
withstand.  The  despotism  of  government  which  the  adherents 
of  laissezfaire  so  fear,  has  its  basis  solely  in  the  ease  with 
which  the  masses  are  gulled.  Then  what  is  to  be  done  ? 

If  the  government  must  exercise  an  increasingly  greater 
control  over  business  and  industrial  combinations,  as  we  be- 
lieve it  must,  it  should  become  as  trustworthy  an  instru- 
mentality as  possible ;  and  its  trustworthiness  can  only  be 
assured  by  an  intelligent  demand  that  such  shall  be  its  char- 
acter. Like  people,  like  government.  "We  may  be  pretty  sure 
that,  if  the  government  is  venal  and  corrupt,  the  masses  of  the 
constituency  have  never  proved  themselves  capable  of  appre- 
ciating any  better  government.  As  long  as  they  hurrah  for 
demagogues,  heed  the  teachings  of  impracticable  fanatics, 
clothe  scheming  plutocrats  with  power,  and  lick  the  hand  that 
lays  the  burdens  on  them,  they  will  never  have  their  proper 
weight  in  government,  and,  in  the  ordinary  "  course  of  nature," 
ought  not  to  have.  It  is  true  that  the  stronger  sort  must 
suffer  to  some  extent  along  with  the  weaker  sort,  for  this  can- 
not be  helped,  and  it  should  have  this  use  to  the  stronger  that 
it  goad  them  on  to  do  whatever  is  possible  to  elevate  the  tone 


158  THE  RADICAL  WRONO  AND  ITS  REMEDY.       [Chap.  VIL 

of  the  general  constituency  for  their  own  relief  as  well  as  for 
the  general  relief.  How  is  this  to  be  done  ?  By  teaching 
practical  truth  and  acting  on  it.  Every  class  interest  at  the 
present  time  endeavors  to  inculcate  its  own  class  bias.  It 
does  so  because  it  looks  only  to  immediate  results,  never 
dreaming  of  remote  and  perhaps  fatal  reactions.  A  class 
never  sees  be}*ond  its  own  nose.  There  is  too  little  truly  can- 
did teaching  of  the  many.  I  know  very  well  how  difficult  it  is 
to  abate  the  evil  of  doctrines,  comments,  and  pretended  news 
that  mislead.  Our  school  education  does  not  do  it.  Some  of 
the  worst  deceived  people  of  the  day  on  social  and  economical 
questions,  are  "  educated  men,"  professional  men,  business 
men,  who  read  certain  ably  conducted  journals,  and  fall  into  the 
habit  of  letting  these  journals  furnish  them,  not  only  with  the 
subject  and  materials  of  thought,  but  with  the  thinking  itself. 
These  journals  are  directed  by  a  class  bias  which  is  imperious 
in  the  suppression  and  distortion  of  facts ;  and  those  who  are 
so  trustful  as  to  "  pin  their  faith  "  to  them,  may  be  as  ignorant 
of  the  real  economical  and  social  status  in  the  civilized  world 
as  if  the}'  lived  in  Africa.  What  seems  to  them  knowledge  is 
a  phantom  that  misleads.  No,  that  is  not  the  kind  of  educa- 
tion that  is  needed.  Some  of  the  best  educated  on  certain 
lines  are  the  worst  deceived  on  other  lines.  It  would  be  no 
trouble  to  give  illustrations  of  this  discouraging  fact,  or  to 
quote  from  discerning  writers  who  have  clearly  seen  it  and 
honestly  stated  it. 

How  is  an  evil  of  this  magnitude  to  be  remedied  ?  How 
are  the  teachings  of  the  press  to  which  the  people  look  for 
information  to  become  unbiased,  honest,  and  trustworthy  ?  By 
a  more  intelligent  appreciation  of  honest  journalism  by  readers. 
But  how  is  this  intelligent  appreciation  to  be  had,  when  the 
readers  so  largely  depend  on  the  very  thing  to  be  reformed,  for 
their  intelligence  ?  No  doubt  hundreds  of  journalists  who 
speak  only  in  general  terms,  or  not  at  all,  of  the  unjust 
aggressions  of  strong  interests,  would  be  glad  to  expose  these 
wrongs  in  detail,  if  they  dared.  But,  with  journalists  as  with 


Sec.  55.~\      THE  MEANS  OP  REMEDYING  CLASS  INJUSTICE.          159 

other  business  men,  success  is  the  one  indispensable  thing,  and 
they  cannot  afford  to  do  what  puts  it  in  jeopardy.  These 
aggressive  interests  scent  danger  from  afar,  and  whoever 
offends  them  with  a  fair  statement  of  the  case  is  pretty  sure  to 
suffer  at  their  hands.  They  have  even  the  power  through  the 
press  and  from  the  platform  to  turn  the  masses  of  people 
against  the  people's  own  best  friends  by  making  them  believe, 
by  the  mere  force  of  daily  and  weekly  reiteration,  that  black  is 
white  and  white  black.  How  are  the  people  to  learn  what  their 
duty  is,  when  largely,  on  one  side,  are  powerful  journals 
devoted  to  class  interests,  and  on  the  other  struggling  journals 
teaching  much  that  is  wild  and  impracticable  ?  After  all,  the 
only  hope  is  in  honest  teaching  by  competent  teachers.  The 
more  overt  and  offensively  aggressive  conspiracies  against  the 
public  interests  become,  the  easier  and  safer  it  is  to  expose 
them,  the  more  liable  they  are  to  be  exposed,  and  the  more 
efficient  is  the  exposure.  Possibly  this  is  coming  to  be  the 
situation.  One  fact  of  the  kind  thoroughly  proved  opens  the 
way  for  the  proof  of  an  additional  fact  of  like  character,  and 
as  the  evidence  accumulates  the  situation  arrests  more  atten- 
tion, and  by  and  by  demands  action.  There  are  teachers  who 
will  take  some  risk,  under  the  commendable  impulse  of  sym- 
pathy and  sincere  love  of  truth,  to  put  the  weak  many  on  their 
guard  against  wrongs  done  by  the  strong  few. 

The  drawback  here  is  that  most,  whose  criticisms  are  really 
true  and  valuable,  fail  in  the  suggestion  of  remedies,  and  thus 
largely  neutralize  their  own  good  work.  Thus,  in  a  paper  at 
hand,  which  espouses  the  cause  of  the  many  and  makes 
honest  endeavor  to  resist  the  aggressions  of  the  few,  I  read : 
"  Two  things  are  absolutely  necessary  to  our  prosperity : 
Abundance  of  money  and  liberal  protection  to  our  industries. 
Both  abounded  during  the  war  and  enabled  us  to  pay  three 
billion  of  war  expenses,  make  good  the  devastation  of  the  war 
and  double  our  wealth  in  thirteen  years."  And  so  on  to  the  end. 
While  such  inconsequential  stuff  as  this  is  welcomed  into  our 
people's  journals,  the  entrenched  monopolies  have  little  to  fear. 
15 


160  THE  RADICAL  WRONG  AND  ITS  REMEDY.       [Chap.  VII. 

Self-stultification  must  neutralize  the  effort  to  dislodge  them. 
And  all  this,  only  too  common,  shows  the  great  need  of  more 
light  for  honest  minds. 

It  is  to  be  hoped  that,  notwithstanding  its  discouraging 
features,  constant  agitation  will  effect  the  elimination  of  error 
in  certain  directions,  and  bring  out  fair  and  practical  results 
by  and  by.  Nothing  of  this  kind  can  be  effected  at  once  for 
want  of  leverage.  A  little  advance  in  the  teaching  may  meet 
with  a  corresponding  advance  in  appreciation  among  those 
whom  the  teaching  is  intended  to  benefit ;  and,  in  turn,  this 
additional  appreciation  may  encourage  a  further  step  on  the 
road  of  manly  outspokenness,  till  by  and  by  the  demand  for 
action  can  no  longer  be  resisted.  We  are  probably  near  this 
stage  in  the  matter  of  regulating  monopolies  in  interstate 
commerce.  We  are  probably  still  a  long  way  off  from  the  reg- 
ulation of  other  monopoly  combinations  which  are  equally 
liable  to  lapses  of  wrong  doing,  but  which  are  borne  with  still 
as  if  the}-  were  dispensations  of  Providence. 

One  of  the  great  difficulties  in  this  country  is  that  when  the 
people  really  demand  the  adoption  of  a  measure  of  public 
policy,  their  wishes  may  be  thwarted  by  obstructions  to  honest 
legislation.  The  public  will  finds  its  way  into  statutory  law  far 
more  readity  in  England  than  in  this  country,  owing  to  the 
better  adaptation  of  parliamentary  methods  to  honest  ends. 
But  this  reform  in  legislative  method,  so  much  needed  in  this 
country,  is  hardly  one  that  is  to  be  brought  about  by  popular 
agitation,  and  I  leave  it  to  be  pushed  by  those  who  understand 
it  a  great  deal  better  than  I  do.  (See  "  Defective  and  Corrupt 
Legislation,"  by  Simon  Sterne.) 

56.  NEED  OF  PRIMARY  EDUCATION  IN  ECONOMICS. — There 
are  some  changes  for  the  better  which  will  come  about  in  gov- 
ernmental affairs  only  through  an  imperious  demand  from  the 
people.  The  more  I  have  given  attention  to  this  subject,  the 
more  I  have  become  convinced  that  little  can  be  done  to 
recover  the  government  from  plutocratic  manipulation  until 
correct  ideas  of  the  economical  and  political  situation  can  be 


SeC.  56.~\      NEED  OF  PRIMARY  EDUCATION  IN  ECONOMICS.          161 

got  into  the  heads  of  the  people  at  large.  And  this  education, 
to  be  of  most  avail,  must  come  home  to  their  practical,  every- 
day life.  As  long  as  they  think  that  general  good  depends  on 
the  success  of  some  great  party,  or  that  somebody  else  is  to 
blame  for  their  own  shortcomings,  no  great  change  for  the  bet- 
ter is  to  be  expected. 

The  masses  of  the  people  must  first  of  all  learn  the  relations 
of  capital  to  labor.  They  must  learn  that  without  capital  em- 
ployment cannot  be  given  to  labor.  Their  general  ignorance 
of  this  principle  is  shown  whenever  they  seek  to  destroy  the 
property  of  offending  persons.  It  is  the  fault  of  narrow- 
mindedness  to  take  a  personal  view  of  things.  If  employes 
are  not  getting  on  well,  they  imagine  it  is  because  somebody 
else  is  not  doing  just  what  is  right.  There  may  be  some 
ground  for  this  view,  but,  with  a  better  knowledge  of  princi- 
ples, they  would  see  something  to  improve  in  their  own  man- 
agement of  affairs.  A  class  or  a  party  always  justifies  its  own 
action  ;  and  an  appeal  to  some  class  weakness  always  flatters 
the  class.  In  this  respect  it  is  with  a  class  much  as  it  is  with 
a  party.  The  party  is  always  right,  and  whatever  conflicts 
with  it  is  always  wrong.  A  little  dispassionate  self-examin- 
ation by  classes  would  be  commendable  in  a  high  degree,  but 
this  is  a  super-human  virtue  that  is  hardly  to  be  expected  on 
earth. 

There  are  class  fashions  which  are  powerful  factors  in  deter- 
mining the  action  of  classes.  The  fashion,  of  course,  comes 
about,  like  all  fashions,  as  a  sort  of  emanation  from  the  class 
mind.  It  is  a  consensus  of  the  feelings  and  judgments  of 
those  who  compose  the  class.  If,  for  example,  it  is  the  fashion 
among  laborers  to  save  out  a  pittance  for  the  present  family 
needs,  and  spend  the  rest  in  whiskey  and  tobacco,  the  young 
members  of  the  class  will  fall  into  the  fashion  generally,  and 
keep  it  up.  The  action  of  salaried  gentlemen  is  too  apt  to  be 
determined  in  the  same  way.  I  have  heard  a  clerk  boast  that 
in  the  twelve  years  he  had  had  a  clerkship  in  one  of  the  de- 
partments, he  had  not  saved  a  cent ;  and  when  he  said  so  he 


162  THE  RADICAL  WRONG  AND  ITS  REMEDY.       [Chap.  VII. 

had  no  assurance  of  retaining  his  position.  He  said  of  a  fel- 
low clerk,  "He  has  saved  twenty -two  hundred  dollars,  but  he 
hasn't  had  the  good  time  I  have  had — I  tell  you,  he  hasn't." 
He  meant  it  to  be  understood  that  his  course  was  the  meritori- 
ous one,  and  enough  of  his  comrades  thought  like  him,  to 
make  it  the  fashion.  If  such  young  gentlemen  had  any  clear 
perspective  of  life,  they  would  entertain  different  views  from 
this  of  what  is  creditable  for  3*oung  gentlemen  to  do.  The 
fashion  they  follow  grows  out  of  their  own  narrowness  and 
vanity ;  and  that  narrowness  indicates  a  defective  education. 

The  usual  school  branches  do  not  meet  the  want  In  addi- 
tion to  these  there  must  be  a  special  economical  education,  so 
combining  theory  and  practice  as  to  fix  correct  principles  of 
action  in  the  habits  of  youth.  I  had  become  so  fully  im- 
pressed with  the  importance  of  teaching  youth  some  of  the 
elementary  principles  of  economical  science  as  a  necessaiy 
means  of  ameliorating  the  condition  of  the  struggling  classes 
(Reforms,  Sec.  71),  that  I  had  tried  to  ascertain  what  would 
be  the  proper  points  to  be  elucidated  in  a  primer  of  economics 
to  be  used  in  schools.  I  had  distinctly  made  out  that  saving 
should  be  the  principal  theme,  and  that  certain  principles  in 
economics  should  have  claim  to  consideration  in  proportion  to 
their  value  in  bringing  into  clear  view  the  importance  of  sav- 
ing. But  I  found  that  something  like  this  had  already  been 
done,  and  in  a  far  more  practical  way  than  I  contemplated. 

Dr.  Guinard,  of  Belgium,  made  provision  in  his  will  for  a 
premium  on  the  best  treatise  or  the  best  invention  for  the 
improvement  of  the  working  classes.  In  1872  the  prize  was 
awarded  by  a  jury  of  five  competent  persons  chosen  by  the 
king  of  Belgium,  to  M.  F.  Laurent,  professor  of  civil  law  in 
the  University  of  Ghent,  for  his  treatise  entitled  "  Conference 
sur  1'Epargne."  The  author  had  tried  his  system  six  years, 
and  it  had  the  advantage  of  successful  experience.  The  plan 
aims  to  establish  in  children  the  habit  of  saving  by  means  of 
suitable  instruction  and  the  use  of  penny  banks  in  the  schools. 
An  hour  is  given  each  week  to  instruction  in  the  methods  of 


Sec.  57.~\          SUMMARY  OP  M.  LAURENT'S  WORK.  163 

thrift.  When  the  school  deposits  amount  to  a  certain  sum, 
they  are  transferred  to  larger  savings  banks,  and  interest  is  then 
allowed.  Parents  catch  their  children's  zeal,  and  undertake  to 
lay  by  savings  for  themselves — another  illustration  of  the  power 
of  a  fashion.  The  interest  which  accrues,  and  is  set  to  their 
credit,  gives  them  a  new  idea  of  thrift,  and  encourages  addi- 
tional saving.  The  system  has  had  a  good  effect  morally  and 
economically  on  the  working  classes.  It  has  extended  from 
Ghent  to  hundreds  of  other  towns  in  Belgium,  France,  Austria, 
Hungary,  Italy,  Great  Britain  and  other  countries.  As  early 
as  1879,  these  school  banks  had  been  introduced  into  83  out 
of  the  8G  departments  in  France.  Deposits  by  the  poor  have 
greatly  increased.  In  certain  European  countries  with  a  pop- 
ulation of  210,000,000,  there  were,  in  1879,  fourteen  million 
depositors  with  an  aggregate  to  their  credit  of  $1,800,000,000. 
(Lalor's  Cyclopedia,  Art.  Hist.  Savings  Banks  by  J.  P.  Town- 
send.) 

57.  SUMMARY  OP  M.  LAURENT'S  WORK. — I  was  curious  to 
know  more  of  the  character  of  Monsieur  F.  Laurent's  brochure, 
which  received  the  Guinard  prize  for  its  success  in  elevating 
the  condition  of  the  working  people.  A  copy  came  late  to 
hand.  It  is  not  at  all  a  synopsis  of  economical  principles  ;  it 
is  simply  a  statement  of  the  merits  and  advantages  of  saving, 
and  its  purpose  is  to  enlist  the  interest  of  teachers.  The 
author  went  from  school  to  school,  and  even  from  pupil  to 
pupil,  to  urge  the  advantages  of  learning  to  save  in  youth. 
Oral  instructions  are  given,  simply  to  enable  the  children  to 
form  an  intelligent  conception  of  the  advantages  of  saving. 
The  children  get  their  centimes  from  parents  and  friends,  as  I 
infer ;  and  this  money,  which  is  usually  spent  for  trifles  and 
transient  gratifications,  is  deposited  in  the  school  banks.  When 
the  deposit  of  any  one  amounts  to  a  franc,  it  is  drawn  out  and 
deposited  in  a  larger  bank,  where  it  draws  interest.  The  safety 
of  these  banks  is  guaranteed  by  the  State.  When  repayment 
is  made,  the  money  is  usually  expended  for  something  neces- 
sary or  useful,  such  as  clothing  for  the  depositor  or  for  younger 


164  THE  RADICAL  WRONG  AND  ITS  REMEDY.      [Ckap.VIL 

members  of  the  family.  It  is  claimed  that  this  affords  to  the 
children  a  high  order  of  moral  discipline.  They  first  deny 
themselves  the  enjoyment  of  dainties  which  their  centimes 
would  buy,  but  which  would  do  them  no  good,  and  might  do 
them  harm ;  and  then  the  expenditure  of  the  money  for  things 
useful  would  afford  gratification  of  a  higher  order  than  that 
of  munching  candy  selfishly  and  alone.  Dainties  are  not  to  be 
denied  to  children  by  any  means,  but  they  should  be  procured 
by  the  mother  according  to  her  means,  to  be  enjoyed  at  the 
family  table. 

Almost  the  poorest  may  save  a  little  if  they  will,  as  this 
experiment  has  shown.  That  they  never  save  is  owing  largely 
to  vicious  indulgences.  The  author  speaks  of  two  kinds  of  sav- 
ing. The  one  kind  degenerates  into  hoarding,  as  with  misers, 
and  is  a  vice ;  the  other  is  kept  under  the  control  of  common 
sense,  and  is  a  virtue.  He  calls  attention  to  the  danger  of 
humoring  children  in  their  craving  for  all  kinds  of  selfish 
indulgences.  Spoiled  children  are  like  those  people  who  spend 
their  lives  seeking  gratification  in  a  continual  round  of  pleas- 
ure which  never  satisfies.  Vanity  is  to  be  controlled,  not 
stimulated,  since,  like  idleness,  it  is  a  mother  of  vices.  He 
condemns  the  habit  of  smoking  among  boys,  and  the  too  great 
devotion  of  girls  to  the  toilette.  He  calls  attention  to  the 
danger  of  temptation  to  girls  at  a  later  age,  if  their  vanity 
has  been  stimulated  while  children  by  too  much  attention  to 
finery  in  dress. 

The  reform  is  placed  on  high  moral  ground.  M.  Laurent 
insists  on  the  value  of  culture  even  to  the  lowly ;  and  for  the 
purposes  of  culture  there  must  be  wealth  to  provide  schools, 
books,  and  museums.  Then,  it  is  the  duty  of  all  to  save  and 
help  build  up  what  is  useful.  He  says  that  the  natural  wants 
of  men  are  limited  and  the  means  of  satisfying  them  within 
the  reach  of  all ;  whereas  those  wants  which  grow  out  of 
vanity,  passion,  and  perverted  appetite,  are  insatiable. 

M.  Laurent  believes  that  the  moral  and  intellectual  dis- 
cipline derived  from  the  habit  of  saving  and  the  instruction 


Sec.  57. ~\  SUMMARY  OF  M.  LAURENT'S  WORK.  165 

accompanying  it,  would  go  far  to  disabuse  the  minds  of  work- 
ing people  of  the  notion  so  prevalent  among  them  that  their 
condition  is  to  be  improved  only  by  revolutionizing  the  present 
order  of  societ}*. 

The  award  of  the  prize  is  accompanied  with  a  report  by  the 
awarding  committee.  In  this  it  is  affirmed  that  there  is  no 
use  in  attempting  to  improve  the  condition  of  the  lower  classes 
till  they  learn  to  avoid  waste  and  acquire  the  habit  of  saving. 
This  habit  must  be  formed  early  in  life,  must  begin  at  school. 
The  principle  to  be  understood  and  observed  is  that  of  making 
a  present  sacrifice  for  a  future  good.  The  rule  of  waiving  an 
immediate  pleasure  for  a  future  one  that  is  higher,  exemplifies 
a  great  principle  in  morals,  and  is  strengthened  for  the  guid- 
ance of  conduct,  by  forming  the  habit  of  saving  in  youth  ; 
and  this  habit  is  best  fixed  by  convincing  children  of  its  value 
by  precept  and  practice,  thus  making  it  the  fashion,  and  found- 
ing it  in  mutual  s}Tmpathy  and  support. 

How  different  is  all  this  from  those  absolute  methods  which 
most  reformers  advocate  for  the  uplifting  of  the  masses  ! 
Here  it  is  pressed  that  the  masses  must  first  be  prepared  to 
appreciate  the  real  conditions  of  life  before  they  can  profit  by 
economical  advantages.  They  must  learn  to  do  for  themselves, 
before  they  can  appreciate  what  others  may  be  willing  to  do 
for  them.  To  put  means  into  wasteful  hands  is  to  throw  them 
awaj',  and  hence  the  need  of  establishing  in  youth  the  habits 
of  frugality.  When  workingmen  fully  learn  the  importance  of 
industry  and  saving,  and  act  upon  it,  their  treatment  by  their 
employers  will  be  different  from  what  it  is  now.  When  a  share 
in  the  profits  of  their  own  labor  is  rightly  appreciated  by 
laborers,  they  will  have  no  difficulty  in  securing  it.  Not  until 
they  understand  the  value  of  capital,  will  they  be  able  to  profit 
to  any  considerable  extent  by  cooperative  effort  of  any  kind. 
When  employe's  learn  to  take  a  thoughtful  view  of  life,  great 
corporations  (railroad  companies)  will  not  find  it  necessary  in 
pursuance  of  self-interest,  to  coerce  them  into  systematic 
saving  for  insurance  against  the  casualties  of  life ;  of  their 


166  THE  RADICAL  WRONG  AND  ITS  REMEDY.       [Chap.  VII. 

own  accord  will  workingmen  then  cooperate,  by  saving,  more 
than  at  present,  for  mutual  helpfulness  in  time  of  need. 
Whenever  workingmen,  as  a  body,  care  properly  for  them- 
selves, their  government  will  be  prudently  advised  to  protect 
them  against  monopoly  combinations,  and  will  do  for  all  by 
positive  enactment  what  it  does  not  now  do,  lest  more  harm 
than  good  result.  An  earnest  demand  by  an  intelligent  con- 
stituency will  be  equivalent  to  a  command  which  the  function- 
aries of  government  will  not  feel  at  liberty  to  disregard. 

On  the  other  hand,  most  of  our  reformers  have  a  short  way 
with  social  and  economical  problems,  and  propose  to  work 
miracles  for  the  good  of  mankind  without  all  this  slow,  tire- 
some process  of  education.  There  is  nothing  to  do  but  to 
confiscate  rent,  or  to  levy  a  tax  of  two  per  cent  on  all  assets, 
or  to  make  an  abundance  of  money  so  that  all  may  get  some, 
or  to  loan  citizens  money  out  of  the  public  treasury  at  one 
per  cent  per  annum,  or  to  undertake  work  at  the  public 
expense  and  transform  labor  into  dead  capital  on  purpose  to 
employ  the  idle,  or  to  recognize  improvident  laborers  as  part- 
ners and  share  profits  with  them,  or  to  do  some  other  un- 
conditional and  absurd  thing.  Now,  what  good  would  any  of 
these  measures  do  for  people  whose  education  and  habits  are 
such  that  they  cannot  or  will  not  manage  for  themselves  with 
prudence  and  economy  ?  The  absurdity  of  these  propositions 
comes  out  in  taking  no  account  of  human  character  as  it  is. 
If  laborers  spend,  largely  in  foil}*,  all  they  get  an}*how,  what 
encouragement  for  an  employer  to  divide  with  them  ?  What 
good  would  it  do  for  the  government  to  loan  at  one  per  cent  to 
a  thriftless  person  who  would  never  paj*,  and,  with  the  secu- 
rity forfeited,  would  soon  be  worse  off  than  ever?  What 
would  be  the  benefit  of  an  inflated  currenc}*  and  booming 
times,  when  the  extravagance  thus  engendered  would,  under 
the  collapse,  most  fatally  affect  the  working  classes  ?  But 
there  is  no  need  of  illustrating  in  detail.  These  absolute 
views  are  captivating,  because  the}*  propose  to  relieve  the  suf- 
fering classes  of  all  the  unpleasant  discipline  necessary  to 


Sec.  58.]  THE  INITIATIVE  IN  THIS  COUNTRY.  ]  67 

success.  But  the  desired  end  will  not  be  attained  in  this  way; 
this  is  precisely  the  way  not  to  attain  it,  and  the  propositions 
show  a  profound  ignorance  of  the  fundamental  conditions  of 
success.  If  the  masses  ever  rise,  they  must  rise  in  large 
measure  by  their  own  endeavors — endeavors  which  involve 
self-discipline  and  self-denial. 

There  is  nothing  in  this  view  inconsistent  with  that  which 
insists  on  the  regulation  of  competition-crushing  rings  and 
corporations.  Such  regulation  is  rightly  urged  in  the  interest 
of  equity.  Equity  first  of  all,  even  if  there  should  be  a  little 
less  of  the  fitful  rush  and  whir  of  business.  But  the  ver}* 
fact  that,  possibl}-,  under  equity,  there  might  be  less  accumu- 
lation of  capital  than  when  equity  is  violated,  shows  the  great 
need  under  right  conditions,  of  educating  the  masses  to  thrift. 
The  two  movements  should  go  along  together.  The  people 
should  learn  the  principles  and  acquire  the  habits  of  thrift, 
and  the}r  should  receive  under  equity  what  is  their  due  to 
enable  them  more  fully  and  happily  to  save  ;  and,  by  this  road 
and  this  onl}-,  can  the  general  tone  of  society  be  elevated. 

58.  THE  INITIATIVE  IN  THIS  COUNTRY. — In  this  country 
there  has  not  been  the  same  pressure  of  need  as  in  Europe, 
and  consequently  less  has  been  done  to  afford  to  j-outh  of  the 
poorer  classes  a  better  perspective  of  life.  There  is  no  system- 
atic teaching  on  this  line  adapted  to  the  needs  of  the  young, 
and  little  provision  has  been  made  for  the  safe-keeping  of  de- 
posits. Owing  to  this  neglect,  persons  of  small  means  are 
more  apt  to  fall  into  wasteful  habits,  than  to  proportion  their 
expenditures  to  their  means  with  a  view  to  possible  savings. 
Even  our  foreigners  who  have  been  trained  to  frugalitj'  in  the 
school  of  necessity,  often  fall  into  the  practice  so  common 
among  the  work-people  here,  of  consuming  all  as  they  go.  Of 
course,  spendthrift  habit  is  not  universal ;  there  are  those  in 
this  county  who  save,  but  the  number  of  such  is  immensely 
less  than  it  might  be.  And  it  is  to  be  feared  that  the  very 
condition,  until  recently  prevailing,  which  enables  them  to 
save  more  largely  than  elsewhere,  is  mainly  the  reason  why 


168  THE  RADICAL  WRONG  AND  ITS  REMEDY.       [Chap.  VII. 

savings  are  not  greater.  It  is  high  time  that  something  be 
done  to  improve  this  condition  of  things,  for  we  may  rest 
assured  that  the  causes  are  at  work  which  will  reduce  the 
wage-earner  in  this  country  to  a  level  with  wage-earners  in  the 
old  countries.  Something  may  be  done  to  remove  some  of 
these  causes,  and  to  retard  the  action  of  others,  but  the  pro- 
cess of  levelling  down  will  still  go  on,  making  it  necessary  for 
the  masses  to  learn  so  much  of  the  situation  as  to  enable  them 
to  take  their  own  interests  into  their  own  keeping. 

First  of  all,  the  most  is  to  be  made  of  present  opportunity 
by  industry,  frugality,  and  saving,  to  strengthen  the  weaker 
elements  in  society.  This  much,  with  sufficient  intelligence, 
might  be  done  without  even  governmental  action  for  the  re- 
moval of  current  abuses ;  and,  until  the  people  at  large  acquire 
sufficient  knowledge  of  the  situation  to  do  something  like  this, 
they  never  can  bring  a  proper  weight  to  bear  on  the  course  of 
public  affairs.  Those  who  preach  that  the  government  must 
do  this  or  that  for  the  good  of  the  masses,  while  neglecting  to 
name  what  the  masses  should  do  for  themselves,  arc  preaching 
in  vain.  The  toiling  many  must  be  assisted,  but  they  can 
never  rise  unless  they  come  to  see  the  need  of  exerting  them- 
selves in  the  only  way  in  which  the  feat  of  rising  becomes 
possible.  And  for  this  the  training  must  begin  in  early  life 
and  in  home  affairs.  If  there  be  anything  done  on  this  line, 
the  beginnings  will  no  doubt  be  small,  originating  with  the 
well-meaning  few  who  think  the  masses  worth  caring  for,  and 
who,  seeing  the  means  to  the  end,  make  an  earnest  effort  to 
adopt  them. 

There  are  certain  agencies  to  which  we  may  look  for  work  in 
this  direction  :  the  instructors  in  our  schools,  those  who  teach 
through  the  press,  and  those  who  speak  to  the  people  from  the 
platform  and  the  pulpit.  These  ma}-  do  much  and  no  doubt 
will  do  much  ;  but,  as  usual,  there  are  drawbacks.  It  has  not 
yet  been  made  the  duty  of  teachers  in  the  schools  to  qualify 
themselves  to  give  instruction  of  this  kind.  The  press  is  too 
much  under  the  influence  of  class  interests.  The  educational 


Sec.  59.~]  MINDING  ONE'S  BUSINESS.  169 

discipline  of  those  who  occup}'  the  platform  and  the  pulpit 
has  not  very  well  qualified  them  to  give  instruction  on  eco- 
nomical subjects.  Their  opinions  are  almost  wholly  second- 
hand, and,  if  they  undertook  to  do  something  useful  in  the 
economical  field,  they  would  be  almost  sure  to  mislead. 

With  regard  to  elementary  economics  in  the  schools,  it  is 
probably  impossible  in  the  present  unsettled  state  of  econom- 
ical theories  to  produce  anything  that  would  be  generally  satis- 
factoty.  It  will  hardly  do  to  put  decaying  dogmas  into  prim- 
ers for  the  use  of  schools.  The  system  of  economical  doctrines 
taught  by  the  "  Manchester  school,"  will  probably  have  to  un- 
dergo some  eliminations  and  modifications  to  bring  it  up  to 
the  times.  In  the  face  of  the  new  and  vigorous  economical 
schools  which  have  sprung  up  in  German}',  England,  and  this 
country,  it  can  hardly  be  regarded  as  wise  to  teach  youth  the 
disputed  tenets  as  if  they  were  settled  principles  of  political 
economy.  We  must  wait  awhile  before  there  can  be  a  satis- 
factory epitome  of  "elements."  But  this  does  not  mean  that 
nothing  shall  be  done.  There  are  certain  simple  principles  of 
economics  on  which  all  are  agreed  (except  visionaries  and 
fanatics),  and  some  of  these  principles  are  the  very  ones  peo- 
ple stand  in  most  need  of  for  guidance  in  life ;  such,  for  exam- 
ple, as  the  economical  importance  of  saving  and  the  value  of 
capital  to  the  industries.  This  may  be  put  into  our  primers 
and  taught  in  our  common  schools.  If  something  like  this 
were  done,  and  the  effort  properly  encouraged  by  the  press,  the 
platform,  and  the  pulpit,  a  very  great  change  for  the  better 
might  gradually  be  brought  about. 

59.  MINDING  ONE'S  BUSINESS  IN  THE  HIGHER  SENSE. — Man 
is  something  more  than  the  isolated  individual  the  extreme 
views  of  laissez  faire  assume  him  to  be.  He  is  a  social  being 
with  social  duties.  It  is  equall}*  an  extreme  view  that  over- 
looks man  as  an  individual.  It  is  certainly  well  for  everyone 
to  attend  to  his  own  immediate  business  and  become  as  inde- 
pendent an  individual  as  possible.  This  is  needful  drill — 
every  individual  ought  to  have  just  such  discipline  for  his  own 


170  THE  RADICAL  WRONQ  AND  ITS  REMEDY.       [Chap.  VII. 

good  and  for  the  general  good.  But  this  does  not  serve  the 
general  good  full}-.  While  the  individual  needs  to  be  disci- 
plined to  make  him  as  self-contained  as  possible,  he  needs  dis- 
cipline as  a  social  being  to  enable  him  to  act  in  concert  with 
his  fellows  for  the  general  good.  Without  this  general  good 
individual  good  is  necessarily  defective.  This  last  named 
kind  of  discipline  is  a  good  deal  more  difficult  than  the  other. 
It  requires  more  self-restraint,  more  comprehensive  views, 
deeper  insight.  But  whatever  may  be  its  requirements,  no  one 
can  neglect  it,  who  wishes  to  round  out  his  own  culture,  his 
own  life. 

Much  of  the  spirit  of  our  times  and  teachings  is  calculated 
to  stimulate  egoism  rather  than  altruism.  The  shrewd  young 
man  looks  out  upon  societ}7  and  has  no  trouble  in  catching  its 
prevailing  spirit.  He  says  :  "  I  see  ;  life  is  a  grab  game,  and 
the  best  grabber  is  regarded  as  the  biggest  man.  All  round 
me  I  see  the  big  and  the  little,  more  little,  however,  than  big  ; 
and  the  big  ones  are  eating  up  the  little  ones  and  growing  big- 
ger. Now,  if  I  know  myself,  I  don't  propose  to  be  one  of  the 
small  fish.  If  eating  is  going  on,  I  prefer  not  to  be  eaten.  I 
shall  look  out  for  myself." 

This,  as  I  said,  is  very  well  as  far  as  it  goes,  but  there  is 
need  for  exertion  in  a  somewhat  different  wa}-.  By  the  time 
our  j'oung  man  gets  to  be  fifty  years  of  age,  he  has  accumu- 
lated a  good  deal  more  than  he  needs  for  comfortable  living, 
and  he  is  now  more  anxious  to  accumulate  than  ever.  He 
says  to  his  own  soul :  "  Sec  all  this  ;  it  is  what  comes  of 
minding  one's  own  business."  Now,  he  has  no  thought  of  any- 
thing but  minding  his  own  business  in  this  way  ;  but  what  is 
he  but  an  egoist  ?  He  thinks  too  ill  of  the  whole  riffraff  of 
human  beings  below  the  line  of  plutocratic  respectabilit}-,  to 
take  a  step  out  of  his  ^^•ay  to  give  one  of  them  a  bit  of  bread. 
He  could  not  entertain  the  idea  that  aggressive  rings  and 
monopolies  with  class  legislation  had  helped  to  keep  man}'  of 
these  poor  people  down  in  the  shadows  of  life.  "  Why,"  he 
says,  "  they  did  not  keep  me  down."  Of  course,  he  will  do 


Sec.  59J]  MINDING  ONE'S  BUSINESS.  171 

nothing  to  help  curb  monopoly  and  promote  fairness  of  com- 
petition, for  even  if  he  is  not  in  a  ring  or  two  of  his  own,  he 
hobnobs  with  ringsters  and  has  a  fellow-feeling  with  them. 
They  are  a  thrifty  lot,  and  with  a  full  measure  of  mutual  sym- 
pathy they  reinforce  one  another  in  the  methods  they  practice 
in  common.  Now,  if  it  be  true  that  all  the  grades  of  society 
are  bound  together  in  relations  which  compel  the  higher  to 
feel  the  weight  of  the  lower  (Sec.  52),  then  is  such  a  man  as 
this  a  practical  pessimist,  who  has  failed  in  his  duties  to  him- 
self and  to  his  fellows.  He  lacks  the  manly  consciousness  of 
cooperative  endeavor  with  his  fellows  to  prevent  the  crushing 
of  the  lowly  and  enable  them  by  conscious  effort  of  their  own 
to  win  for  themselves  prizes  of  a  little  greater  value  in  life. 

It  requires  a  higher  order  of  powers  to  cooperate  with  one's 
fellows,  whether  in  voluntary  association  or  in  the  discharge  of 
political  duties,  in  order  to  promote  equity  among  men  and  ad- 
vance the  general  interests  of  society,  than  it  requires  merely 
to  seize  the  chances  of  self-aggrandizement.  To  mind  one's 
business  in  the  higher  sense  is  to  exercise  these  higher  powers ; 
and  the  generous  youth  should  be  instructed  that  he  does  not 
truly  discharge  his  duties  to  himself  "when  he  neglects  the 
duties  he  owes  to  society  in  general.  It  is  precisely  when  all 
are  intent  on  self-seeking  that  conspiracies  are  formed  against 
general  interests,  and  the  people  are  made  to  suffer.  With  a 
more  generous  ambition  among  the  few  and  a  better  under- 
standing of  the  situation  among  the  many,  we  ma}r  hope  for 
more  efficient  action  in  the  interest  of  justice  to  all  classes  in 
society. 


NOTE  TO  SECS.  57  and  58.— One  of  the  jury  that  adjudged  the  Guinard 
prize  to  M.  Laurent's  work  was  Emile  de  Laveleye,  the  well-known 
Belgian  economist.  1  append  the  translation  of  three  brief  passages 
from  the  report  of  the  jury,  and  one  from  the  essay  itself: 

"This  work,  entitled  Conference  sur  V Epargne,  contains  but  a  few 

pages;  but  the  idea  which  it  develops  is  so  just,  so  full  of  promise  for 

the  future,  and  where  it  has  been  applied,  especially  in  Ghent,  it  has 

afforded  such  remarkable  results,  that  it  appeared  to  combine  all  the 

•1C 


172  THE  KADICAL  WRONG  AND  ITS  REMEDY.       [Chap.  VII. 

important  conditions  necessary  to  command  the  suffrages  of  the  jury." 
(p.  III). 

"It  is  in  vain  that  we  advance  money  to  the  workingman,  or  make 
him  a  present  of  tools  to  work  with,  as  certain  reformers  propose ; 
these  presents,  like  the  legacies  received  by  spendthrifts,  are  soon  lost. 
It  is  above  all  things  necessary  to  impart  to  working  people  the  spirit  of 
order,  of  foresight,  and  of  good  management,  by  which  alone  can  the 
capital  received,  whether  as  loan  or  gift,  be  preserved  and  increased. 
The  Co-operative  societies  which  have  been  successful  are  those  that 
have  formed  their  capital  by  means  of  heroic  deductions  for  saving 
from  daily  income;  those  to  which  the  government  of  1848  made  ad- 
vances very  soon  failed."  (p.  V.) 

"  But  they  tell  us  this  (saving)  will  dry  up  the  affections  of  children, 
stifle  their  generous  impulses,  and  teach  them  to  be  stingy.  These 
objections  are  refuted  by  the  facts.  To  save  is  to  conquer  an  appetite 
and  to  resist  the  desire  of  immediate  enjoyment  for  a  remote  advan- 
tage which  the  mind  alone  can  perceive.  It  is  a  triumph  over  passion, 
over  egoism;  and,  whoever  is  in  the  habit  of  controlling  his  passions  and 
appetites  and  living  under  the  direction  of  his  intellect,  is  more  ready 
to  make  sacrifice  for  others  than  one  who  is  in  the  habit  of  seeking  the 
gratification  of  his  own  whims."  (p.  VIII.) 

"But  instead  of  demanding  like  the  socialists  the  abolition  of  prop- 
erty, I  say  to  workingmen:  It  depends  on  yourselves  whether  you 
become  owners  of  property.  Do  not  seek  for  happiness  in  the  destruc- 
tion of  the  social  order,  because  you  will  be  the  first  to  suffer  in  tlio 
general  ruin.  Your  happiness  depends  on  yourselves.  Learn  to  save, 
for  this  is,  at  the  same  time,  to  learn  to  moderate  your  desires,  and  to 
govern  your  passions.  Saving  is  the  sure  means  of  ameliorating  your 
condition  physically,  intellectually,  and  morally."  (pp.  4,  5.) 


CONFLICT  IN  NATURE  AND  LIFE: 

•   Study  of  A  ntagonism  in  the  Constitution  of  Things,  for  the 

Elucidation  of  the  Problem  of  Good  and  Evil,  and  the 

Reconciliation  of  Optimism  and  Pessimism. 

New  York:  D.  APPLETON  &  CO.,  1,  3,  &  5  Bond  Street. 
Pages  488.     S2.00. 


CONTENTS. 
PART  FIRST:   THE  SUBJECT  IN  HISTORY  AND  LITERATURE. 

Chapter  I.  Ancient  Conceptions  of  Antagonism  and  of  the  Evils  of  Life. 

Chapter  II.  Modern  Views  of  Physical  and  Moral  Discord.— Chapter 

III.  Pessimism. — Chapter  IV.  Optimism  :  Perfection  and  the  Golden 
Ages.— Chapter  V.  The  Problem  Stated. 

PART  SECOND:   CONSIDERATIONS  FROM  SCIENCE. 

Chapter  VI.  Existence. — Chapter  VII.  The  Unit  of  Physical  Existence. 
— Chapter  VIII.  The  Primary  Forces.— Chapter  IX.  Chemistry  and 
Physics. — Chapter  X.  Conflict  in  the  Biological  Forces.— Chapter  XI. 
Antagonism  in  the  Sphere  of  Mind.— Chapter  XII.  Conflict  as  a  Factor 
in  Morals. 

PART  THIRD:   HISTORICAL  BREVITIES  ILLUSTRATING  CONFLICT. 

Chapter  XIII.  General  History.— Chapter  XIV.  Grecian  History.— 
Chapter  XV.  Roman  History:  The  Republic. — Chapter  XVI.  Roman 
History:  The  Empire. — Chapter  XVII.  Early  English  History. — Chap- 
ter XVIII.  The  Feudal  System.— Chapter  XIX.  The  Christian  System 
under  Conflict  with  other  Systems.— Chapter  XX.  Papal  Supremacy. — 
Chapter  XXI.  The  Great  Modem  Conflict. 

PART  FOURTH. 

Chapter  XXII.  Antagonism  as  a  Factor  of  Evolution. 

PAKT  FIFTH:  EVIL  IN  RELATION  TO  THE  NECESSARY  CONDITIONS  OF  LIFE. 
Chapter  XXIII.  Paradoxes  of  Feeling  in  Relation  to  Function. — Chap- 
ter XXIV.  Man's  Environment:  Geological  Conditions.— Chapter  XXV. 
Man's  Environment:  Atmospheric  and  Oceanic  Currents. — Chapter 
XXVI.  Man's  Environment :  Limitations  of  the  Habitable  Area. — Chap- 
ter XXVII.  Man's  Environment :  Economical  Difficulties  of  Limitation. 
— Chapter  XXVIII.  The  Future  of  Physical  Environment. — Chapter 
XXIX.  Origin  and  Conflict  of  Natural  Laws. 

PART  SIXTH:   THE  ODTLOOK,  SOCIAL  AND  MORAL. 

Chapter  XXX.  Sanitary  Conditions. — Chapter  XXXI.  Prospects  of  the 
Common  Working  People. — Chapter  XXXII.  Influence  of  the  Relative 
Prolificacy  of  Classes  on  Society.— Chapter  XXXIII.  The  Marriage  Rela- 
tion.—Chapter  XXXIV.  The  Religious  Consolations.— Chapter  XXXV. 
Pleasure  and  Pain  inseparable. — Chapter  XXXVI.  Uses  in  General, 
Summary,  and  Conclusion. 


REVIEWERS'  OPINIONS  OP  "CONFLICT" — EXTRACTS. 

Boston  Daily  Advertiser:— The  strength  of  his  book  is  in  the  abun- 
dance of  illustrative  matter  which  he  lias  brought  to  the  support  of  his 
thesis,  and  in  the  large  view  of  the  world  which  he  has  been  obliged  to 
take  in  order  to  do  it.  The  author  favors  meliorism,  and  his  book  has 
a  healthy  tone,  in  so  far  as  it  presents  the  dual  position  in  which  the 
active  forces  of  life  stand  toward  one  another.  The  argument  is  in- 
structive rather  than  conclusive,  and  is  supported  by  liberal  extracts 
from  nearly  all  the  modern  writers  on  science,  society,  and  religion. 
There  is  a  certain  enlightenment  to  be  gained  from  these  pages  which 
no  student  of  modern  society  will  care  to  miss. 

Boston  Journal:—  Bears  traces  of  original  research,  patient  study, 
and  concentrated  thought. 

Boston  Courier: — It  is  very  clearly,  though  sometimes  a  little  crude- 
ly written,  and  while  evidently  not  the  work  of  a  professional  philos- 
opher or  writer,  it  shows  the  result  of  very  wide  reading  and  generally 
of  intelligent  thinking.  The  careful  reader  will  often  differ  with  the 
author  and  detect  gaps  in  his  reasoning.  And  the  chief  value  of  the 
work  will  be  found  in  its  rich  and  varied  suggestiveness,  its  blazing 
the  line  along  a  hundred  pathways  of  thought  in  which  retlective 
minds  are  beginning  to  grope  their  way. 

Boston  Saturday  Evening  Gazette:  —  The  author  withholds  his  name, 
but  he  is  evidently  a  student  and  a  thinker,  thoroughly  acquainted 
with  his  subject,  and  thoroughly  in  earnest  in  expounding  it  *  *  *  The 
multiplicity  of  subjects  treated  is  confusing,  and  the  conclusions  lie 
rushes  to  emphasize  are  lost  in  the  crossing  and  recrossing  threads  of 
his  arguments.  lie  has  crashed  his  legions  under  the  weight  of  their 
shields,  and  the  result  of  the  battle  is  lost  in  the  elaboration  of  its 
details.  These  faults,  however,  are  due  to  a  well-stocked  and  discip- 
lined mind  that  has  much  to  say  and  brief  space  to  say  it  in,  and  not- 
withstanding its  faults,  the  volume  will  prove  interesting. 

Boston  Evening  Transcript:—  "Conflict  in  Nature  and  Life"  is  one 
of  those  ponderous  books,  with  extensive  subtitles,  from  which  at  first 
glance  a  reviewer  is  apt  to  turn  away  with  an  impression  of  "great 
ciy  and  little  wool,"  and  concerning  which  he  feels  that  economy  of 
eyesight  must  be  made  paramount  to  conscientious  perusal.  Turning 
the. leaves,  however,  reveals  signs  of  power,  and  he  soon  finds  himself 
reading  with  an  intentness  that  makes  him  realize  that  he  is  commun- 
ing with  a  learned,  serious,  and  influential  writer.  There  is  an  even 
dignity  and  almost  majesty  of  style,  an  impartiality,  simplicity,  and 
fine  temper  in  the  book,  which  takes  his  sympathy  captive  and  arouses 
his  reasoning  capacity.  To  this  succeeds  a  puzzled  interest  over  the 
anonymity  of  authorship,  which  ends  in  a  vigorous  resolve  to  find  out 
who  is  responsible  for  the  production  of  a  work  so  strong  and  thought- 
ful. There  are  not  probably  a  half-dozen  men  in  the  United  States  cap- 
able of  giving  us  a  book  of  equal  erudition  and  sound  philosophical 
structure.  The  temptation  to  guess  is  irresistible,  and  the  mind  runs 
over  the  list  of  college  presidents  and  learned  professors,  only  to 
decide  that  not  one  of  them  is  equal  to  the  task. 

Sprinafield  Republican,  Ma**.:  —  While  the  book  proceeds  from  first 
to  last  upon  data  wholly  outside  of  supernatural  religion,  it  is  not 
wanting  in  coincidences  and  indirect  confirmations  of  Christianity. 


2 

REVIEWERS'  OPINIONS  OF  "CONFLICT" — EXTRACTS. 

Morning  Journal  and,  Courier,  New  Haven,  Conn. :  —  The  book  is  an 
able  and  profound  study  of  a  great  subject. 

Popular  Science  Monthly,  N.  Y.:— It  will  appear  from  what  we  have 
said,  that  this  work  on  conflict  is  offered  as  a  contribution  to  the  phi- 
losophy of  life,  or  as  deepening  the  foundations  of  such  a  philosophy. 
The  claims  in  this  direction  are  brought  out  in  a  general  way  in  the 
final  chapter.  Its  conclusions  are  broadly  practical.  The  philosophy 
of  conflict  inculcates  moderate  expectations.  Avoiding  the  extremes 
of  optimism  and  pessimism,  of  conservatism  and  radicalism,  it  aims  to 
do  work  only  where  work  will  be  effectual  —  work  that  will  make 
things  better,  and  work  which  prevents  them  from  becoming  worse. 

Eclectic  Magazine,  N.  Y.:  —  From  this  imperfect  synopsis  of  a  very 
thoughtful  and  ambitious  book,  it  will  be  seen  that  the  author  does  not 
content  himself  with  studying  the  subject  from  an  abstract  and  ideal 
stand-point.  His  aim  is  to  make  the  conclusions  and  suggestions  use- 
ful in  practical  ethics,  and  the  sincerity  of  his  aim  is  evident  in  every 
line.  We  do  not  agree  with  some  of  his  conclusions,  but  his  thought  is 
stimulating.  He  disclaims  in  his  preface  any  claim  to  originality  as  a 
philosophical  thinker  •  but  certainly  no  one  will  deny  him  the  right 
which  he  does  claim —  that  of  being  a  judicially-minded  student  of  his 
subject,  who  is  fully  acquainted  with  the  thoughts  of  the  best  minds 
of  the  world  on  the  same  topic,  and  who  adds  to  them  many  a  word 
worth  reading  and  pondering, 

The  Nation,  N.  Y.:  —  The  author's  mind  moves  with  smoothness 
and  decency  through  the  wide  field  of  popular  science,  often  construct- 
ing a  perfect  mosaic  of  well  chosen  quotations.  The  grouping  of  his 
impressions  and  facts  must  have  been  an  admirable  discipline  for  him, 
but  it  seems  to  us  in  several  ways  a  good  illustration  of  what  philos- 
ophy is  not,  or  at  least  should  not  be. 

The  Herald,  N.  Y.:  —  It  is  a  very  ambitious  book.  But  the  author 
writes  modestly,  is  not  at  all  given  to  undue  or  arrogant  assumption, 
and  probably  he  would  be  the  first  to  admit  that  his  finished  work, 
which  has  evidently  been  the  labor  of  years,  is  neither  so  original  nor 
so  complete  a  success  as  at  one  time  he  hoped  it  would  be  *  *  *  We  do 
not  think  the  book  will  work  a  revolution  in  either  religion  or  philos- 
ophy, but  we  commend  it  as  a  learned  treatise,  as  an  able  and  interest- 
ing study  on  a  most  difficult  subject.  The  author  makes  a  mistake  in 
concealing  his  name. 

The  World,  N.  Y.:— The  author  of  this  volume  carefully  withholds 
his  name,  though  why  a  rectifyer  of  these  venerable  antagonisms  of 
the  ages  should  be  ashamed  to  be  known  in  connection  with  his  stu- 
pendous industry,  we  are  wholly  unable  to  guess.  A  careful  perusal  of 
the  book  must  convince  the  intelligent  reader  that  he  has  here  to  deal 
with  the  most  specious  form  of  pessimism  and  abject  materialism  mas- 
querading under  an  assumption  of  scientific  authority.  And  it  is 
interesting  to  observe  what  kind  of  an  exhibit  nescience  makes  when 
it  loads  itself  with  the  plunder  of  antagonistic  physicists  and  staggers 
into  the  realm  of  philosophy.  One  may  well  be  pardoned  for  making 
the  attempt  to  "elucidate"  the  old  mysteries  of  the  origin  of  evil  and 
the  source  of  life.  But  an  "elucidation  "  that  bears  upon  its  face  the 
marks  of  dishonesty  and  ends  in  confusion  and  futility  must  fail  to 
excite  anything  but  wonder  at  the  strange  mental  organization  which 
can  take  delight  in  so  balancing  the  world's  opinions  that  the  result  is 
an  equilibrium  of  negations. 


—  3  — 

REVIEWERS'  OPINIONS  OP  "  CONFLICT  " —  EXTRACTS. 

The  Observer,  N.  Y.:  —  its  crudcness  is  something  marvellous.  It 
abounds  in  citations,  which  indeed  are  so  many  as  to  make  the  volume 
resemble  the  emptyings  of  a  common-place  book.  Its  author  has  read 
a  good  deal,  but  his  insight  and  logical  power  approach  zero. 

Daily  Graphic,  JV.  Y.:  —  This  is  an  anonymous  work  which  treats 
many  important  questions  in  a  very  intelligent  manner  *  *  *  With 
these  as  the  cardinal  principles  of  his  system  he  passes  in  rapid  review 
all  of  the  vital  questions  of  the  hour,  such  as  we  have  pointed  out 
above.  And  of  no  one  of  them  does  he  not  say  something  that  is  worth 
remembering. 

The  Churchman,  N.  Y.:  —  It  will  be  seen  that  the  author  takes  the 
reader  over  a  wide  range  and  discusses  the  most  important  truths. 
He  writes  with  ability  and  candor,  and  while  a  good  deal  of  what 
he  says  does  not  accord  with  our  reason,  he  still  commands  our 
respect. 

The  Jewuh  Advocate,  JV".  Y.:  —  A  candid  spirit  of  inquiry  prevades 
the  book. 

The  Examiner,  2f.  Y.:— Whatever  be  the  judgment  on  the  author's 
success,  no  fair-minded  reader  can  fail  to  regard  the  book  as  one  of 
very  great  ability  and  value  as  to  its  material,  evidently  accumulated 
through  many  years  of  laborious  and  careful  study ;  as  to  the  skill  with 
which  the  materials  are  organized  by  the  central  principle ;  as  to  the. 
clearness  of  style  and  statement,  which  leaves  no  possible  opportunity 
for  mistaking  the  author's  meaning  *  *  *  As  a  contribution  to  the  dis- 
cussion of  a  dilticult  question  the  book  is  of  great  permanent  value. 
It  is  a  thesaurus  of  facts.  The  discussion  is  candid  and  fair  *  *  *  As 
for  us,  we  continue  to  believe  in  a  kingdom  of  Christ,  which  is  bring- 
ing men  one  by  one,  and  so  is  gradually  bringing  society,  out  of  moral 
evil  into  the  good. 

Evening  Telegram,  N.  Y.:  —  Though  this  book  treats  of  none  but 
profound  and  important  subjects,  it  is  written  with  singular  lucidity, 
the  statements  being  as  clear  as  the  extremely  complicated  nature  of 
the  themes  will  allow  *  *  *  We  think  it  will  be  acknowledged  by  every 
intelligent  reader  that  though  the  author  lias  not  "explained"  the 
problem,  in  the  sense  of  entirely  depriving  it  of  mystery,  he  has  yet 
"elucidated"  it,  in  the  sense  of  making  it  less  unintelligible  than  it  is 
generally  thought  to  be  *  *  *  Few  readers,  not  blessed  with  exhaust- 
less  animal  spirits,  can  rise  from  the  perusal  of  this  work  with  feel- 
ings of  joyfulness  and  abundant  hope.  A  serene  resignation  and  a 
sober  cheerfulness  are  the  lessons  it  inculcates.  It  is  a  product  of 
unusual  power,  evincing  profound  knowledge  and  a  wonderful  bal- 
ance of  judgment. 

The  School  Journal,  N.  Y.:— The  subject  is  treated  in  its  widest  re- 
lations, and  in  a  judicial  spirit  that  we  admire;  but  we  do  not  agree 
with  the  author's  conclusions. 

Good  Literature,  N.  I".:— There  are  two  classes  of  authors— one  thinks, 
the  other  guesses.  Our  author  manifestly  belongs  to  the  former  class, 
for  his  whole  book  bears  the  mark  of  the  constant  beating  of  the 
brain-hammer. 

The  Christian  Union,  N.  Y.:—"  Conflict  in  Nature  and  Life"  is  a 
semi-religious  work  covering  one  of  the  most  interesting  fields  of 
thought  and  observation. 


—  4  — 

REVIEWERS'  OPINIONS  or  "CONFLICT" — EXTRACTS. 

Brooklyn  Union,  N.  Y.:— The  discussion  is  remarkable  for  its  scope 
and  fullness,  and  for  its  pertinence  to  most  of  the  difficult  problems 
which  are  occupying  the  attention  of  the  more  intelligent  classes.  The 
nature  of  the  subject,  as  well  as  the  disposition  of  the  writer,  has  led 
to  a  fair,  sober,  and  judicious  method  of  investigation  as  it  implies  the 
presentation  of  opposing  facts,  principles,  and  arguments. 

Albany  Argus,  JV".  Y.:  —  In  a  very  frank  and  charming  preface  the 
anonymous  author  of  this  volume  says:  "Between  the  critic  who  should 
pronounce  the  book  true  but  not  new,  and  the  other  who  should  think 
it  new,  but  singular  and  fanciful,  it  would  be  preferable  to  believe  the 
former  more  nearly  correct."  We  hold  to  neither  of  these  criticisms, 
but  think  the  book  both  true  and  new,  and  remarkably  interesting  as 
well.  Many  of  the  ideas  of  the  author  have  been  expressed  before 
(they  would  not  be  true,  else),  but  the  principle  of  the  work,  in 
the  entirety  is  original  in  treatment,  and  the  theories  of  the  writer 
are  more  thoroughly  developed  than  his  modesty  would  lead  us  to 
expect. 

Syracuse  Herald,  .ZV.  Y.:  —  The  author  finds  the  origin  of  evil  in  an 
inevitable  and  necessary  antagonism  in  the  constitution  of  tilings.  He 
brings  history  and  science  to  bear  upon  the  elaboration  of  his  theory, 
which  he  discusses  with  much  learning  and  great  force  of  reasoning 
in  all  its  varioxis  connections  with  nature  and  life.  Whatever  may 
be  thought  of  the  views  put  forth  in  it,  the  book  itself  cannot  be 
regarded  as  other  than  a  most  profound  treatise  on  a  very  difficult 
subject. 

Post-Express,  Rochester,  N.  Y.:  —  The  anonymous  author  of  this 
bulky  though  rigidly  condensed  volume,  has  made  a  contribution  to 
our  philosophical  literature  of  far  too  great  importance  to  be  dis- 
posed  of  in  a  passing  notice  *  *  *  Books  so  original,  so  carefully 
thought  out  and  so  moderate  are  rare  in  our  contemporary  literature. 

Sunday  Morning  Express,  Buffalo,  N,  Y.: — Our  author  is  prodigious- 
ly learned  *  *  * ;  but  calm  judgment  forces  upon  us  the  conviction  that 
lie  scarcely  knows  what  he  means  himself ;  and  that  if  the  whole  488 
pages  were  boiled  down  there  would  not  be  found  nourishment  enough 
in  them  to  support  a  mouse. 

Pittsburgh  Telegraph:  —  Each  chapter  is  arranged  in  sections,  and 
each  section  is  a  brief  summary,  complete  in  itself.  We  must  again  ex- 
claim with  Domine  Sampson,  "  Prodigious ! "  but  with  sincere  apprecia- 
tion of  the  study  and  careful  thought,  which  were  required  to  get  this 
knowledge  into  such  small  compass  and  such  readable  form.  The 
book  is  a  good  library  condensed  into  clear  sections,  and  is  as  full  of 
interest  as  it  is  of  "meat"  *  *  *  We  would  like  to  know  the  name  of 
the  author  of  tliis  remarkably  well  written  book.  He  has  not  merely 
read  and  arranged  a  vast  number  of  topics,  but  he  has  thought  upon 
them  thorougly  and  well.  His  modest  preface  of  itself  shows  the  hand 
of  no  ordinary  man. 

Philadelphia  Evening  News : — "Conflict  in  nature  and  Life"  is  an 
elaborate  and  carefully  thought  out  essay  by  an  anonymous  author 
on  human  life  in  connection  with  the  order  of  nature.  The  teacher 
and  student  of  ethics  will  find  it  of  interest  and  use,  particularly 
as  it  furnishes  further  and  deeper  investigations  into  the  subject  of 
the  moral  law  and  of  good  and  evil  than  are  found  in  the  few  text 
books  on  ethics. 


REFORMS: 

THEIR  DIFFICULTIES  AND  POSSIBILITIES. 

By  the  author  of  "  Conflict  in  Nature  and  Life." 
New  York:   D.  APPLETON  &  CO.,  1,  3,  h  5  Bond  Street. 

Pages  320.    81.0O. 


CONTENTS. 
PART  FIRST:  THE  LAEOR  QUESTION. 

Chapter  I.  Wages. — Chapter  II.  Saving  and  Management.— Chapter  III. 
Monopoly. — Chapter  IV.  Schemes  for  Industrial  Reform. — Chapter  V. 
The  Straight  and  Narrow  Way. 

PART  SECOND:   FINANCIAL  QUESTIONS. 

Chapter  VI.  Money. — Chapter  VII.  Protection  and  Monopoly.— Chapter 
VIII.  A  People's  Platform. 

PART  THIRD:    MISCELLANEOUS  REFORMS. 

Chapter  IX.  Questions  of  Practical  Every-day  Economics. — Chapter  X. 
Some  Points  in  Education. — Chapter  XI.  The  Woman  and  Divorce 
Questions. — Chapter  XII.  The  Temperance  Question. — Chapter  XIII. 
Various  Reforms. — Chapter  XIV.  Issues  of  the  Near  Future. 


The  above  work  was  announced  daring  the  Presidential  cam- 
paign of  1884.  As  it  deals  with  live  political  issues,  and  contains 
passages  offensive  to  the  partisan  biases,  while  it  calls  attention  to 
the  derelictions  of  duty  on  the  part  of  some  newspapers,  it  was  not 
to  be  expected  that  the  book  would  meet  with  a  very  warm  wel- 
come from  the  press.  No  donbt  there  were  some  silences  duo  to 
these  causes ;  but  there  are  only  two  or  three  of  the  notices,  so  far 
as  seen,  that  could  bo  suspected  cf  partisan  bias,  the  general  char- 
acter of  the  notices  and  reviews  being  creditable  to  the  press  as 
well  as  favorable  to  the  book.  The  following  are  extracts  from 
some  of  them : 


REVIEWERS'  OPINIONS  OF  "REFORMS" — EXTRACTS. 

Daily  Eastern  Argus,  Portland,  Me.  .-—All  these  topics  are  discussed 
with  a  candor,  strength,  and  directness  of  method  that  cannot  fail  to 
win  respect,  even  when  it  does  not  convince.  But'  in  the  main  it  will 
have  to  he  conceded  his  reasoning  runs  on  the  line  of  truth,  and  while 
it  does  not  encourage  optimism,  it  does  encourage  men  in  the  assurance 
that  with  the  exercise  of  their  best  faculties,  prudence,  and  persever- 
ance, they  will  accomplish  quite  satisfactory  results,  and  answer  toler- 
ably well  the  end  of  their  being  ;  in  other  words,  that  they  must  work 
out  their  own  salvation  and  are  quite  competent  to  do  it.  The  book  is 
one  that  no  one  interested  in  the  questions  discussed  should  omit  to 
read. 

The  Boston  Index : — This  offers  one  of  the  most  original  and  profound 
solutions  of  the  great  problems  of  life,  mind,  and  society  that  has  been 
attempted ;  and,  in  its  discussion,  the  author,  in  his  two  books,  has 
embodied  a  vast  amount  of  thought  and  erudition  as  the  result  of  wide 
and  close  study.  *  *  *  If  this  principle  of  the  reciprocal  action  of 
counter-tending  forces,  which  the  author  applies  to  so  wide  a  range  of 
matters,  of  the  highest  interest,  is  the  true  one,  its  importance  in  their 
discussion  can  not  be  overestimated  ;  but  there  is  always  room  for 
diverse  interpretations  when  a  principle,  so  broad  and  universal  in  its 
sweep  is  applied  to  particular  cases  of  its  infinitely  complex  ramifica- 
tions. 

The  Literary  World: — The  anonymous  author  of  "Reforms"  is  wrell 
informed  and  sensible,  judicious  and  judicial,  discussing  the  various 
problems  now  before  economists  with  clearness  and  candor,  and  with- 
out heat  or  prejudice,  making  a  book  that  is  suggestive  to  the  reader's 
own  thinking  and  reasoning,  rather  than  dogmatic  and  argumentative. 

The  Boston  Journal: — The  author  discusses  the  labor  questions, 
financial  questions,  education,  divorce,  &c.,  in  a  pessimistic  and  some- 
times cynical  manner. 

The  Home  Journal,  Boston : — Although  the  name  of  the  author  is  not 
given,  it  is  evident  that  the  work  is  from  no  ordinary  mind,  and  that 
the  subjects  treated  have  been  most  thoroughly  and  conscientiously 
studied.  13y  this  we  do  not  mean  to  say  that  the  writer  has  in  every 
instance  arrived  at  a  correct  or  logical  conclusion  ;  but  to  our  mind 
these  cases,  where  evidently  prejudice  of  education  has  biased  him, 
are  the  exceptions  to  the  rule  of  logical  soundness. 

Boston  Commonwealth :— The  statement  is  clear  and  popular. 

Boston  Evening  Transcript :— It  deserves  to  be  widely  read,  both  by 
the  laborer  and  his  employer.  It  is  calculated  to  stimulate  thought, 
and  one,  cannot  doubt  that  its  writer  will  prize  most  such  readers  as 
find  in  its  pages  views  the  correctness  of  which  they  stand  ready  to 
challenge.  The  keynote  to  all  its  dogmatism  is  moderation.  The 
method  of  reform  recommended  is  by  the  way  of  Aristotle's  golden 
mean. 

Boston  Evening  Gazette: — Shows  a  thorough  mastery  of  his  subject, 
and  almost  bewilders  by  the  mass  of  information  and  of  ideas  he 
brings  to  bear  upon  the  theme.  It  covers  a  very  wide  field,  and  is  a 
book  to  be  studied  and  digested  by  all  who  take  an  interest  in  the 
leading  practical  questions  of  the  time. 

Atlantic  Monthly: — The  writer  is  a  man  of  conservative  habits  of 
thought,  who  recognizes  the  value  of  institutions,  which  have  been  the 


_2  — 

REVIEWERS'  OPINIONS  OP  "  REFORMS  "  —  EXTRACTS. 

slow  growth  of  generations,  while  at  the  same  time  he  is  ready  to 
acknowledge  the  defects  which  •weaken  them.  He  occupies  a  middle 
ground,  and  endeavors  in  the  various  questions  of  labor,  finance,  and 
society  to  point  the  way  both  to  preserve  and  correct.  Such  writers 
are  rarely  heeded,  but  this  one  is  worth  attention. 
Springfield  Republican.  Mass.: — A  book  by  some  unknown  author  of 


remarkable  ability  and  erudition  as  might,  be  expected  when  it  is 
upplementary  to  a  former  work,  "Conilict  in 
Nature  and  Life."  •*'  *  *  The  book  is  stimulating,  suggestive,  and  tan- 


announced  as  being  supplementary 


talizing.  The  author  seems  to  have  almost  attained  to  the  Buddhistic 
Nirvana,  the  quietus  of  a  patient  and  peaceful  indifference.  Never- 
theless he  sets  us  thinking  in  a  broad  and  comprehensive  way  about  a 
wide  range  of  practical  topics. 

The  Providence  Keening  Pre**,  II.  I.  .-—One  of  the  most  noteworthy 
philosophical  works  that  appeared  last  year  was  an  anonymous  book 
entitled,  "Conflict  in  Nature  and  Life."  *  *  *  The  work  on  "Reforms" 
is  in  one  sense  a  sequel  and  supplement  of  the  former  treatise,  and  is 
yet  an  independent  work.  *  *  *  It  is  an  able  and  interesting  discussion 
and  ought  to  be  read  by  every  reformer. 

The  Popular  Science  Monthly:— But  our  experience  with  reforms  and 
reformers — those  who  make  it  a  business  and  a  profession — is  not  such 
as  to  convince  us  that  further  knowledge  on  the  philosophy  of  this 
important  subject  is  superfluous.  For  this  reason  we  welcome  the 
present  book  as  a  timely  and  valuable  contribution  to  the  question  of 
the  difficulties  and  possibilities  of  reformatory  effort.  The  author 
brings  out  a  view  of  the  subject  that  needed  to  be  elaborated.  It  is  a 
great  subject,  and  his  treatment  of  it  is  neither  exhaustive  nor  fault- 
less ;  but  it  is  sufficiently  full,  cogent,  and  instructive  to  be  of  great 
public  service. 

The  Eclectic  Magazine :  —  Such  questions  (as  are  discussed  in  the 
volume)  are  vastly  complicated,  and  an  author,  at  best,  is  able  only  to 
elucidate  them  by  getting  at  the  elemental  facts  and  principles  of  them 
without  entering  into  any  study  of  their  widespread  application.  13ut 
in  doing  this  in  a  simple,  honest,  and  unpretending  fashion  lie  does  a 
good  work.  There  is  much  that  is  stimulating  in  the  book.  The 
author  has  a  knack  of  getting  at  the  very  core  of  the  subject  in  a  few 
plain  words,  and  seeing  what  is  essential  and  what  non-essential  and 
merely  accidental.  *  *  *  We  heartily  commend  this  little  book  to  tlie 
thoughtful  reader  as  one  charged  with  stimulating  and  valuable 
suggestion. 

The  Nation :— They  (the  author's  "opinions")  are  delivered  in  a  tone 
of  easy  and  complacent  superiority,  which  may  be  accounted  for  by  the 
fact  that  those  who  are  thoroughly  versed  in  the  subjects  brought  up  in 
this  treatise  are  apt  to  shun  such  discussion  as  the  writer  indulges  in. 
There  seems  to  be  little  that  is  erratic  in  the  views  that  are  expressed, 
and  upon  the  whole  we  should  suppose  that  the  intellectual  operations 
of  the  ordinary  citizen,  who  gets  his  ideas  from  conversation  and  from 
the  newspaper,  might  be  very  fairly  represented  in  these  monologues. 

Journal  of  Commerce,  JV.  Y.:  —  The  author  of  this  book  should  have 
put  his  name  on  the  title  page.  It  is  very  creditable  to  him.  He  only- 
still  more  provokes  curiosity  by  announcing  that  he  is  also  the  author 
of  "Conflict  in  Nature  and  Life"  —  a  work  much  read  and  admired. 
The  writer  differs  from  most  persons  who  treat  of  reforms  in  this  iui- 


—  3  — 

REVIEWERS'  OPINIONS  OP  "  REFORMS  "  —  EXTRACTS. 

portant  respect :  he  understands  the  weak  points  of  reform  movements 
and  the  imperfect,  often  very  defective,  nature  of  reformers  as  a  class. 
No  man  can  be  a  purely  impartial  critic  as  between  conservatism  and 
radicalism.  But  we  here  have  an  observer  who  is  honest  and  well 
meaning  and  has  as  few  prejudices  as  fall  to  human  lot.  In  a  spirit  of 
justice  he  considers  the  labor  question,  protection  and  monopoly, 
woman  suffrage,  divorce,  liquor  prohibition  and  various  other  subjects 
which  are  actively  discussed  at  the  present  time.  His  tone  is  admir- 
able. Neither  the  capitalist  nor  the  day  laborer,  the  protected  manu- 
facturer nor  the  tax-ridden  consumer,  the  Maine  law  man  nor  the 
advocate  of  the  freest  license,  can  quarrel  with  this  calm  thinker  and 
courteous  adviser,  while  all  may  derive  benefit  from  Ins  pages. 

The  Examiner,  N.  Y.:— The  anonymous  author  of  this  book  is  a  man 
of  accuteness  of  mind,  soundness  of  judgment,  and  skill  in  the  art  of 
putting  things.  Whoever  reads  those  chapters  will  find  much  with 
which  lie  will  disagree,  but  nothing  that  will  not  arouse  his  interest 
and  stimulate  his  thought.  *  *  *  The  topics  discussed  are  those  on 
which  every  man  who  thinks  at  all  has  thought  much,  and  ought  to 
think  more.  It  is  as  a  help  and  a  provoker  to  hard  thinking,  the  book 
will  be  found  most  valuable. 

The  Herald,  N.  Y.:  —  This  is  a  very  unsatisfactory  work.  It  is 
scrappy  and  loosely  put  together.  The  words  "at  this  writing"  appear 
frequently,  with  dates  running  from  1880-1883,  thus  indicating  the 
manner  of  production.  Had  the  author  confined  himself  to  one  or  two 
reforms,  his  book  would  have  gained  in  weight  and  utility.  As  it  is 
there  is  some  meat  in  it,  but  it  is  overlaid  with  fat.  What  of  good 
is  in  it  is  smothered  in  the  array  of  platitudes  which  serve  to  pad 
it  out  and  tire  the  reader.  The  writer  has  a  multiplicity  of  views  that 
is  rather  confusing. 

The  Churchman,  JV.  Y.:  —  In  this  case  the  business  of  bringing  down 
the  exalted  states  of  the  Reform-worshippers  to  the  level  of  practical 
good  sense,  is  very  thoroughly  and  successfully  done.  The  partisan  of 
a  particular  reform  is  like  the  votary  of  a  patent  medicine,  he  sees  in 
his  specific  the  one  cure  of  all  the  evil  in  the  world.  It  is  worth  while 
when  a  really  able  writer  will  take  up  the  thankless  task  of  exposing 
the  crude  fallacies  and  inconclusive  theories  of  the  Reformer.  We 
may  not  agree  with  all  the  points  in  this  volume,  but  it  is  well  worth 
the  reading,  and  even  the  study,  which  shall  help  one  to  understand 
at  least  the  two  sides  of  the  questions  of  the  day. 

The  Christian  at  Work,  N.  Y.  .-—The  whole  subject  is  presented  from 
an  entirely  new  point  of  view  from  which  it  has  not  been  the  habit 
heretofore  to  contemplate  the  perplexing  problems  of  life.  Even 
those  who  may  find  themselves  dissenting  from  the  views  of  the  author 
will  yet  find  in  the  freshness  and  novelty  of  his  suggestions  much  to 
interest  them  and  awaken  thought. 

New  York  Daily  Graphic :— The  chief  defect  of  the  book  is  a  rare  one 
—its  bewildering  superabundance  of  food  for  question  and  thought. 

Brooklyn  Daily  Eagle,  N.  Y.  .-—The  eleventh  and  twelfth  chapters  of 
the  Third  Part,  the  former  treating  of  the  Woman  and  Divorce  Ques- 
tions and  the  latter  of  the  Temperance  Question,  seem  to  us  the  most 
valuable  portion  of  the  whole  work,  on  account  of  the  facts  stated  and 
the  lucidity  with  which  inferences  are  drawn  to  them. 


—  4  — 
REVIEWERS'  OPINIONS  OF  "REFORMS"  —  EXTRACTS. 

Albany  Sunday  Pre»x,  N.  Y. :— To  those  who  have  read  the  first  work 
of  this  Modest  writer,  and  are  as  much  amazed  at  its  wisdom  and 
scholarship  as  perplexed  l>y  their  inability  to  discover  the  authorship, 
the  volume  in  question  will  be  gratefully  received.  It  can  be  said  to 
be  a  courageous  and  intelligent  commentary  upon  the  reform  measures 
oJ  the  day,  without  the  adoption  of  the  absurdities  that  usually  hamper 
the  reformer.  If  its  lessons  could  be  learned  by  every  citizen  and 
thoroughly  understood,  there  would  be  little  delay  in  effecting  the 
reforms  of  which  it  treats,  but  which  it  modestly  disclaims  to  indicate 
a  means  of  accomplishing.  It  is  clear,  concise,  logical,  and  convincing 
in  every  conclusion,  and  its  analysis  of  methods  is  wonderfully  effective 
and  successful. 

Syracuse  Daily  Herald,  N.  Y.  .-—The  presentation  of  the  subject  from 
this  point  of  view  is  novel,  but  the  chief  merit  of  a  discussion  thus 
based  upon  the  principles  of  antagonism  lies  in  its  suggestiveness  and 
its  appeal  for  a  more  careful  and  judicious  treatment  than  is  usually 
given  to  the  great  practical  questions  of  the  day. 

Daily  Union  and  Advertiner,  Rochester,  N.  Y.:  —  It  will  be  seen  that 
his  discussions  take  a  wide  range.  He  brings  to  them  much  surface 
intelligence,  without  very  profound  philosophy,  but  guided  by  instincts 
generally  correct.  *  *  *  On  the  whole  the  book  is  timely,  and  one 
which  would-be  economists  and  reformers  may  read  with  interest  and 
profit. 

Sunday  Morning  Expres*,  Buffalo,  N.  Y. :  —  The  author  of  this  book 
has  given  us  here  a  great  deal  better  work  than  was  exhibited  in  his 
earlier  volume,  of  which  we  said,  in  a  former  notice  that,  "if  his 
whole  488  pages  were  boiled  down,  there  would  not  be  found  nourish- 
ment enough  in  them  to  support  a  mouse."  In  the  present  work  with- 
out any  such  parade  of  learning  as  marked  the  first,  he  writes  like  a 
thoroughly  practical  and  sensible  man.  *  *  *  We  commend  especially 
to  one  class  of  fanatics  whose  mistaken  zeal  and  absolute  pigneaded"- 
ness  appear  to  be  in  direct  proportion  to  the  goodness  of  their  cause, 
chap.  XII,  on  the  Temperance  Question,  in  which,  as  it  seems  to  us, 
there  is  a  "power"  of  good  sense  packed  away.  *  *  *  Wo  trust  that  this 
thoroughly  nealthy  volume  will  be  widely  read  and  carefully  pondered. 

Commercial  Gazette,  Cincinnati:  —  These  free  trade  propagandists, 
whose  acquaintance  with  British  dinners  and  British  gold  is  probably 
not  exaggerated,  are  extremely  sly  in  getting  in  their  work.  Here  we 
catch  one  inoculating  the  public  while  pretending  to  write  about 
reform. 

Chicago  Tribune :— As  a  whole,  the  work  is  suggestive  rather  than 
profound.  It  deserves  a  careful  reading. 

The  Standard,  Chicago :— It  is  a  thoughtful,  earnest  suggestive  treat- 
ment of  what  is  now  eminently  a  "live  question." 

Inter  Ocean,  Chicago:— This  is  a  small  volume  of  220  pages,  but  it  dis- 
cusses concisely  and  more  to  the  point  the  question  of  reform  than  any 
volume,  even  those  more  pretentious  in  size,  that  we  have  perused. 
First,  the  author  has  studied  his  subject  from  every  stand-point,  and  by 
scholarly  methods  discusses  every  phase  of  the  question  without  a 
prejudice  or  any  seeming  hobby  in  sight.  Communists  and  capitalists 
will  doubtless  both  find  fault  with  the  reasonings  and  the  conclusions, 
but  they  will  find  the  positions  taken  difficult  to  assail.  The  author 
has  arranged  his  subject  with  great  care. 


